The Wallflower
by MysticEyesx
Summary: The story of a wallflower called Mae. [Season 1 onwards]
1. Pilot

_September 7__th__ 2009_

Everyone was different. No-one is the same. It's just a fact of life. Mae Fell knew that. So why has Mae felt so out of place all her life? Whenever she tried to answer that question, her mind would draw up blank. She just didn't know. She didn't know why she felt as if she was the lonely tadpole in a sea of fish. There were many people like her in the world—the wallflower type; the ones that were seen but not noticed by others for any longer than a second; the one that spent their whole teenage life avoiding the company of others; the ones that were too scared to admit that being alone was lonelier than they'd like to admit.

For Mae, being a wallflower wasn't something she had intended on—it just happened. Her family died when she was fourteen, she moved in with her Aunt and cousin, she was the talk of the town for a while, and then nothing; she became the small flower on the wall. From then on, she has kept to herself. Three years had passed since her family died. Three long, years of existing in a meaningless world; that isn't to say that Mae had become suicidal. She managed. She carried on, like most do in similar situations. She visited a therapist weekly; she talked about her feelings to _someone_, so she didn't completely bottle it up. Her life with Aunt Liz and Caroline was alright—even if Caroline ignored her like the plague. Liz was nice. They got along well. Liz even made up her own room two years ago so she didn't have to share with Caroline anymore, which was for the best. And on her 16th birthday, Liz even gave her a kitten, who Mae considers her one and only friend. Caroline hates the thing, but the feeling was mutual.

Mae had a life—a quiet life, but a life nonetheless—and she had no intent on leaving just yet. Mystic Falls was her home. Regardless of the bad memories she had of this place, she had some good memories too.

"Good morning Mae." Liz greeted her on the first morning Mystic Falls High School reopened after a long summer. Liz was—like usual—sitting at the table, in her uniform, drinking a cup of coffee and reading the paper. Mae had become quite accustom to seeing Liz like this. Being the Sheriff of Mystic Falls Police, Liz had a lot of priorities, which meant these times when Mae encounters Liz in the kitchen in the early hours of the day were the only time Mae would see her until night-time. There were also days when Mae could go for days without seeing her aunt, but that was usually when something has happened in Mystic Falls that required her constant attention.

"Morning." Mae said.

The furry Egyptian Mau kitten was brushing at her feet, as it had been from the moment she left her room, which usually meant she was expecting food. Mae padded across the linoleum floor, to the two empty cat bowls beside the back door where a cat-flap had been inserted. Mae filled one of the bowls with water and the other with cat food straight from a tin. The kitten didn't waste a minute in diving straight for the food. As he ate, Mae made her own breakfast and sat down opposite Liz at the table, munching on her Cheerios silently until the kitten jumped onto her lap full-stomached, curled into a ball, purring as Mae absentmindedly began to scratch behind his ears.

As Mae ate her breakfast, she thought about the day ahead. Of course the first day of high school signified the beginning of a new school year, for Mae she would be moving into junior year, with Caroline. She and Caroline were the same age, but seven months apart. Caroline was born in October while Mae was born in April. Mae vividly remembered that Caroline used to boss her around, believing that since she was older, she was allowed. Caroline still bossed her around to this day, but for the majority of the time, she ignored Mae. Not that Mae minded. She and Caroline were polar opposites in some, and most, ways. It didn't matter as much when they were younger, when they seemed to get along for the sake of being children, but now things were different—they were different.

Caroline was the head cheerleader, Queen B, miss popular, student body, head of the prom committee etc., etc., etc…

And Mae was . . . well, a wallflower.

Mae was brought out her reverie by none other than Caroline herself. She flounced into the room, her blonde curls as gold as the sun bouncing and her heels clinking on the linoleum floor. Their taste in fashion was yet another obvious contribution to how they were so different; Caroline, who was wearing heels and designer tops, dressed for style, whereas Mae dressed for comfort—well, not comfort per say, but for personal preference. Jeans and t-shirts was what she preferred, because it wasn't eye-catching and it wasn't attention grabbing like Caroline's attire seemed to be. And while Caroline's hair was gold like the sun, ironed into delicate curls, Mae's dark honey-brown hair was braided away from her face, just leaving a few strands hanging around her face.

"Morning sweetheart. Do you want some breakfast?" Aunt Liz asked her daughter.

Caroline flashed Liz her pearly whites. "No thank you Mommy. I'm just going to get something from Mainline Coffee." Caroline said as she picked up her car keys from the hook. "Bye." She sung and flounced out the room.

"Wait," Liz called after her. "What time will you be . . ."—the door slammed shut—". . . back." Liz finished. She met Mae's eyes and sighed. "Sometimes I wonder whether she does that on purpose."

Mae shrugged. It was possible. Ever since Aunt Liz and Uncle Bill separated, things have been tense between Caroline and Liz. At first sight, you wouldn't expect things to be tense between them, but it was obvious to anyone—like Mae—who lives in the Forbes household. Mae had learnt to live with it, as the separation didn't exactly affect her. Liz was her aunt through blood, whilst Uncle Bill was her uncle through marriage. Mae's mother had been one of Liz's older sisters. She was 40 when she died with Mae's Dad and brother.

"I better go." Liz said looking at her watch. "You need a ride?"

Mae shook her head. She'd much rather walk.

"Well, come straight home after school."

Mae nodded in answer. Liz smiled weakly and left the room. Minutes later the door swung open and shut and moments after that, the sound of Liz's cruiser leaving the drive was heard. After she was gone, Mae mulled over Liz's words as she slipped on her boots, jacket and stuffed her textbooks into her rucksack. It wasn't like Liz to tell her to come straight home. Mae always came straight home; she never went to parties or after school activities—nor did she even go to friend's houses (you needed friends in the first place for that to happen). So why did Liz say that? The way she said it was almost like a warning.

Something couldn't have happened in Mystic Falls, could it? The only recent incident that Mae could think of was the animal attack that happened just outside of town. But that was an _animal _attack.

After saying goodbye to Tumnus, Mae left the Forbes household and made her way to Mystic Falls High. Because she didn't have a car, and Caroline was never willing to give her a lift, Mae usually walked to school. Sometimes it was lonely but soon Mae would have enough money to buy her own car. Since the beginning of the summer, Mae has been working at The Grill as a waitress. The plan was to save up for a car and whatever was left over, would be put towards college, but she had the money from her parents to pay for college.

The weather was moderate this morning. Despite fall's arrival, the sun was still shining. Mystic Falls usually had a semi-warm climate, with the occasional downpour and snowfall around winter. There was something about fall that Mae loved; perhaps it was the change in the colour of the leaves; the less scorching heat that summer usually brought; or the idea of warming up beside an open fire; or the fact it was her Mom's favorite time of the year. Regardless the reason, Mae was her favorite season, and she found herself in a slightly better mood as to when she left the house.

But her mood plummeted once she reached the main streets of Mystic Falls. At the time when the incident happened, Mae had been walking along the side-walk. She had heard a deafening screech. She barely had enough time to turn around. A blue Honda she recognised as Bonnie Bennett's car was coming straight towards her. The breaks were slammed but it wasn't enough to stop the car from hitting her; she was thrown to the ground and she felt her ankle twist in an awkward angle as she fell. She fell to the ground with an 'offt', her hands breaking her fall. Moments later, the car doors were opening and closing and Caroline's best friends were suddenly by her side.

"Oh my God, Mae—are you okay?" Bonnie asked her, panic in her tone. "I'm so sorry—a b-bird—it came out of n-nowhere! Do you need an ambulance?" Over her head, Mae spotted a black bird fly off and positions itself on a street lamp on the opposite side of the road. From where Mae was, it looked like a crow.

"I'm fine." Mae mumbled. "You didn't hit me hard—just knocked me off my feet." Mae said, not quite liking this sudden attention she was receiving. Her cheeks felt as hot as fire. Mae tried to pull herself back onto her feet, but was met with a shooting pain coming directly from her ankle. Luckily Elena reached out and grabbed Mae before she fell back down. "My ankle." Mae said through gritted teeth when they asked her what's wrong. "I think it's twisted." Bonnie looked extremely guilty.

"Well, why don't we drive you to the hospital?" Elena said, concern coating her beautiful features. Elena Gilbert was, without a doubt, the most beautiful girl in the school and Mae knew for a fact that Caroline hated it. Despite the fact they were supposed best friends, Caroline has always treated Elena as a threat, and always tried her best to beat her in everything—which proves to be quite impossible as Elena seems to be one of those girls who seems to be naturally gifted at almost everything she did.

"No," Mae shook off the offer. "It's fine. I'll just got to the nurse's office when I get to school. It's twisted—not broken."

"Then let us at least drive you to school and help you to the nurse's office."

Mae looked between the two girls. She did not like the idea of arriving to school with two of the most popular girls in school, let alone Caroline's best friend's. Long time ago, Bonnie and Elena had been Mae's best friends too—at least, a very, very _long_ time ago. But nonetheless, she didn't think she would be able to make it to school with her ankle, thus leaving her with no choice but to accept their offer. "OK," Mae reluctantly accepted and then said with afterthought: "Thanks."

Bonnie and Elena helped her into the back of Bonnie's Honda that seemed to have left this accident without so much of a scrape. When they arrived at school, Bonnie and Elena helped her to the nurse's office that wasn't far from the reception. As Mae hobbled beside Bonnie and Elena through the busy corridors, Bonnie was leaning into Elena and making running commentary about how people looked after a long summer—which made Mae's teeth grit with something other than pain. Mae attempted to ignore what they were saying, but found herself subconsciously listening to what they were saying when the three of them reached the reception. The topic had turned towards Matt Donovan. Elena seemed to believe that he hated her after their break-up over the summer.

Down the corridor, Mae spotted Caroline walking down the corridor. Figuring that Caroline wouldn't be happy to see her there with her friends, Mae muttered a quick "Thanks" and "Cya" to the two girls (who didn't seem to hear it) and disappeared into the nurse's office. The nurse helped her as soon as she spotted Mae hobbling through the door, muttering something about the school not being open for an hour and already getting students needing her medical attention, as she tended to her ankle. Mae didn't bother explaining the fact that Bonnie had hit her with her car on the way to school, figuring it would cause more drama than it was worth and considering Mae hated drama with a capital 'H', Mae simple said 'she tripped' when the nurse asked.

A few minutes later, Mae had left the nurse's office, with an ice-pack wrapped around her ankle and still hobbling. She noticed Bonnie staring at something—or someone—down the hall, straight past Mae, and when Mae looked towards what she was staring at she spotted Elena talking to a good-looking guy whom Mae hadn't recognised before now. As it turned out his name was Stefan Salvatore. She found this out because she had the not-so-honourable chance to sit with him in Math class. Not that Stefan was an unkind person—from the few words he said to her, he seemed very nice, but when a small town high school gains a new student that meant the curiosity of every single student was gained. Thus meaning, Mae spent the whole lesson, trying to avoid the on-lookers who desperately tried to hear their conversation.

Caroline—who was also in her Math class—did not look pleased about the fact Stefan chose to sit with Mae rather than the other vacant seat that just so happened to be beside Caroline, who had forced her friend Tiki to sit elsewhere to get the chance to sit with the new guy.

But as it turns out, Stefan attention was directed towards a certain brown-eyed beauty, commonly known as Elena. By the time History class was over, every single girl (bar Mae) was leaving the room heavy-hearted after enduring a whole lesson of watching Stefan and Elena share flirtatious glances to one another. Caroline and Matt seemed the most unhappy about the prospect of the new guy liking Elena Gilbert; Caroline spent the entire lesson frowning at the back of Elena's head and tightening her hand around her pencil whenever Elena and Stefan would look at each other. Mae should have been amused but her ankle hurt too much.

By the time school had ended, the pain in her ankle had worsened considerably. Mae was biting her lip in hope to manage the pain and walking was becoming near impossible. The mere thought of having to endure a whole walk back to the Forbes household made her feel nauseous. But apparently her pain didn't go unnoticed, which came to quite the surprise as Mae wasn't quite used to being noticed, but apparently this time was a rare exception.

"Hey . . . you okay there?" her noticer asked. Mae looked up, like a deer caught in headlights and saw none other than Matt Donovan looking down at her, concerned. "You look like you're struggling. Hurt leg?"

Mae nodded. "Yeah." She looked around and realised she was in an empty parking lot, bar the few stragglers that were getting into their cars. Mae didn't realise it had taken her this long just to get to the parking lot.

"C'mon, I'll give you a ride home." Matt said. Mae looked at him, baffled. "I know you walk home everyday, Mae—I drive passed you."

Mae blinked, finding it quite overwhelming that someone _did_ actually notice her. She felt a strange stinging feeling in her eyes and quickly looked away before Matt noticed the tears forming in her eyes. The last time she cried was at her family's funeral. She wasn't going to cry because some guy from school actually noticed her. It would be pathetic. "A ride would be great—thanks." She found herself accepting her second ride of the day.

Matt gave her a small grin when she did. There was no doubt Matt was one of the best looking guys in schools—even Mae could admit that. Matt was someone you'd class as the stereotypical 'Golden Boy' that you usually saw portrayed in those high school chick-flicks. He's the one that every girl would love the date, because everyone knows he would make the perfect boyfriend. He had looks, kindness, was a great athlete and never treated anyone less than what he was.

They walked to Matt's truck in silence. Half-way across the parking lot, Matt surprised Mae by taking her bag from her shoulder. "T-Thanks." She stuttered back.

"So . . ." Matt said at some point when they had settled into the truck and began to drive them out of the parking lot. "How is it that you and Caroline live in the same house, are in _all_ the same lessons, and Caroline never once gives you a ride to or from school?"

Mae nervously licked her lips, staring at her hands that she clasped on her lap. "I . . . I didn't realise anyone noticed."

Matt gave her a side-glance, eyeing her with those pretty blue eyes. "Mae—just because you'd rather keep to yourself, doesn't mean that we don't notice things—well, at least, I notice things." Matt said after thought. "Most people seem to think you're called Marie." Matt then said quickly: "No offence." Mae shrugged quietly, as if to say "_none taken_". "Not to make things awkward, but I think this is probably the first time I've even heard you talk." Matt chuckled, shaking his head. Mae blushed. "It's nice to hear you talk—all these times I've seen you, head tucked into your books, keeping to yourself in classes but never heard your voice . . . it's just nice to put a voice to the face."

If Mae thought she was blushing before, she was definitely blushing now.

There was a few minutes of silence, before talking started.

"So what's it like living with the infamous Caroline Forbes?"

Mae shrugged. "Fine." She nonchalantly said, and then—which a spur of courage—she said: "What's it like living with the notorious Vicki Donovan?"

Matt's face tightened (everyone knew about what kind of stuff Vicki was into), but he chuckled nonetheless. "Touché. I guess we both have difficult people to live with." He said as they pulled up outside the Forbes residence. Caroline's car was already parked in the driveway. "Do you need any help to the door?" Matt asked, from behind the wheel as Mae collected her things. Mae—still quite baffled with the concern Matt Donovan (of all people) was giving her—shook her head shortly. "Well, I'll wait here until you get into the house."

Mae blushed and gave him a nervous smile. "Thanks for the lift Matt."

Matt smiled sweetly and said: "No problem, Mae."

Mae struggled out of Matt's truck and began hobbling up the pathway to the porch, trying desperately hard not to make a fool out of herself as she could still hear the sound of Matt's engine from the street. Mae had just reached the deck of the porch, when the door swung open, revealing Caroline. Caroline narrowed her eyes on Mae, her ankle and snorted. "What's wrong with you?" she asked, with little concern in her voice.

"I tripped." Mae grounded through gritted teeth.

A horn sounded from behind her, capturing the two girl's attention. Mae looked around to see Matt giving her a wave before driving off.

"Was that Matt Donovan?" Caroline said, incredulously. "What was he doing here?"

Mae turned to look at her cousin and answered as breezily as she could: "He dropped me off."

Caroline's eyebrows rose. "_He dropped you off_?" Caroline repeated. "Does he even know who you are?" she said, snottily.

Mae cringed, the stinging sensation returning to her eyes. "I guess so."

Caroline huffed. "Whatever. I'm going to the Grill. Tell _my _Mom I don't want dinner." Caroline sneered as she barged passed Mae, almost knocking her over, and stormed down to her car. Mae watched Caroline drive off, giving her no-notice as she did so, and didn't look away until her sleek Mercedes had driven out of sight much like Matt's a minute ago. Mae sighed, turning back to the house, where Caroline had left the front door open wide. Tumnus had suddenly appeared at the threshold at the door, having noticed her return. He gave her a meow of recognition as he spotted on her on the porch.

"Hello Tumnus." Mae said affectionately, a sudden wave of exhaustion crashing over her. "I think I need a nap. You wouldn't believe the day I had." She sighed.

…

_September 8__th__ 2009_

When Mae woke up the next morning, she had convinced herself that yesterday had been a fluke day. She certainly didn't think that she was _wrong _about being unnoticed. She was still the same wallflower as she has always been, except that statement was put to the test later that hour when a knock came from the door. At the time Mae had been slipping on her shoes over her bandaged ankle when the knock on the door came. Last night, after Liz had returned home, Liz had insisted they went to the hospital. The doctors at the hospital had wrapped up her ankle and given her some pills to help ease the pain.

Caroline had already left, having been sick of listening to Liz fuss over the fact Mae's insistence to walk to school. She probably left before Liz came up with the idea for Caroline to take her there. Nonetheless, Mae was determined the carry on as normal—as if yesterday hadn't even happened—but that proved to be quite impossible by the doorbell rang and Liz answered the door.

"Mae, you've got a visitor." Liz called from the foyer.

Mae looked up, completely baffled by what Liz had just said. A visitor? Her? was there a mistake? It had to be a mistake. They were probably looking for Caroline, not her; Caroline got visitors all the time. Mae certainly didn't get any visitors, whatsoever. Mae pulled herself up from the chair around the table in the kitchen and limped into the foyer where—alas—Matt Donovan stood on the threshold, in his letterman n' all. Mae blinked, half wondering whether this was just a dream, but it wasn't. Matt Donovan was really standing in the doorway, smiling at her _directly. _There wasn't even someone behind her to mistake the smile with someone else. He was really smiling at her.

"Hey," Matt said.

"Hey?" She replied, though it came out as more of a question.

Liz was watching the interaction with raised eyebrows.

"I thought—since you seemed to be really struggling yesterday—I would take you to school."

Mae opened her mouth in shock. " . . . Oh."

"Well, isn't that nice—Matt Donovan, isn't it?" Liz smiled at Matt.

Matt nodded. "Yes, Sheriff."

"I'm sure Mae will appreciate your lift very much, right Mae?"

Mae was pretty sure she was resembling a fish in water with the way she opened and closed her mouth. "Well—I—er—um . . ."—she looked between Liz and Matt and sighed—"I would be very grateful if you could take me to school, Matt."

Liz grinned in way that was almost triumphant. "Well, that's settled then. I've got to go off to work. Get the school to contact me if your ankle gets any worse." Liz said to Mae. Mae nodded and Liz turned to leave. Matt stepped aside, so she could get passed. "Thank you Matt. Drive safe, won't you?"

"Of course, Sherriff."

"Good boy."

After Liz had drove away in her cruiser, Matt waited on the porch as Mae awkwardly slipped on her last boot, her jacket and her picked up her rucksack. Before she had a chance to even swing it over her shoulder, Matt had grabbed it from her hand and had swung it over his own shoulder. "You don't have to do that. My ankle isn't half as bad anymore—I went to the hospital last night with Aunt Liz. See?" Mae pulled up her pants leg to show the bandage wrapped around her ankle.

Matt shrugged his shoulders, but didn't make any indication to giving her bag back. "You ready?"

Mae nodded. "I just have to say goodbye to Tumnus."

Matt looked confused but when a he spotted the kitten sitting on the ground, watching them, it became clear. "Was he there the whole time?" Mae giggled and nodded. "Oh."

After shutting the door and heading the down the porch carefully, the two of them made their way towards Matt's truck parked at the bottom of the drive. Matt didn't seem in the least bit bothered by the fact Mae was walking much slower than usual, but patiently carried her rucksack to the truck by her side. "So you're a cat person, huh?" Matt said, as they just about reached the truck.

Mae shrugged. "Cats are independent. They do things on their own. Not like dogs, who need to be looked after and around people. Cats prefer the company of themselves—they prefer to be alone."

Matt looked at her with an amused smile. "So like you then?"

"Huh?" Mae asked, not quite catching what he had said for she had been too busy getting into the truck. Matt shook his head and chuckled, slipping effortlessly into the driver's seat.

The majority of the ride to school was spent in silence. Once they had reached the town square, Matt had put on the radio and had began drumming his fingers on the wheel to the beat of the music, occasionally muttering the lyrics to the sound he knew or bobbing his head along. Mae stifled a giggle at some points, biting down on her lip and keeping her eyes strained on the window. By the time they had reached the school, a knot appeared in Mae's stomach. She wasn't quite looking forward to people noticing the fact that she was arriving at school with _Matt Donovan_—and they _will_ notice. Somehow she managed to keep herself cool and collected (externally at least) as they arrived at the school parking lot, but when people began to look at Matt's truck (like most people did when the populars arrived at school), her insides began to spasm.

Mae's cheeks were burning as she pulled herself out of Matt's truck. As they met around the back of the truck, Mae figured they'd say a quick good-bye and then be on their separate ways, but apparently Matt had other ideas. "Thanks for the ride. I'll see you in History class." Mae said, beginning to turn away from him and walk in the direction of her first class, Math, but paused when Matt called out for her. "What are you doing?" she asked when he joined her side.

"Walking with you to class?" he said, as if it were the most obvious thing.

Mae furrowed her brows in confusion. "But you're not in my Math class."

Matt's smile didn't falter. "I know. I have Biology though—I can walk with you." Matt shrugged. "Why—don't you want to be seen with me?"

Mae flushed. A part of Mae _didn't_ want to be seen with Matt, because she knew people would start talking once they did, and being talked about was the last thing she wanted.

"C'mon," Matt jokily began. "I'm not that bad."

Mae rolled her eyes. "Fine. But if you start to make me look uncool, I'm out of here."

Matt almost faltered in his step. "Was that . . ."—Matt stuttered—"Did Mae Fell just make a _joke?_"

Mae hid her smile and pretend glared at Matt. "Don't get used to it."

By second period, the rumour that Matt and Mae were dating had already circulated the school and she was already being stared at almost half as much as Stefan Salvatore was being stared at. Mae daren't look at Caroline in any of the classes she had with her (which was all of them), but she already knew Caroline was seething. Not because Caroline liked Matt, no, but probably because that meant Elena had no chance of getting back together with Matt and thus leaving Caroline with no chance of getting with the new guy. That was why, when lunchtime came around, Caroline came storming into the library and headed straight for to spot where Mae usually spent her lunches—at the back of the room, reading, and eating discreetly.

"Is it true?" Caroline demanded.

Mae looked up from her book. "Is what true?"

"Don't play coy with me. Is it true—are you and Matt Donovan dating?" Caroline snapped.

"No." Mae spared her one more glance before returning her gaze to her book.

"Good, because you know that he'd never _actually_ like you right? He's still in love with Elena—it's so obvious anyone could see it. Even if he expressed any sort of interest in you, he'd still go crawling back to Elena Gilbert if given the opportunity. Got it?"

Mae nodded.

Caroline gave her one last glare. "Good." And then she was gone.

Mae's jaw tightened and looked down at her book, feeling the words began to blur into unreadable black splodges.

Why was she even crying? Mae thought to herself angrily. It wasn't as if she liked Matt Donovan. Everything Caroline had said _was_ true. Matt Donovan—or any guy for that matter—would never actually like her.

She was a wallflower and no-one fell for wallflowers.

By the time school ended, Mae had spent the rest of the day with her head down trying to ignore the whisperings behind her back. Luckily Caroline had spread around the school that Mae and Matt were not dating, but people still stared; people still wondered why Matt would express sudden interest in her out of the blue—wondering _why_ he would suddenly arrive at school with her, having never speaking to her before now.

Mae had the full intention to leave History class at the end as quick as possible, before Matt could catch up with her and spark up more unnecessary attention from the students, but with her ankle the way it was, it proved to be more difficult than planned.

"Hey," Matt said, stopping at her desk as she attempted to cram everything into her bag as quick as possible. "Ready to go?"

Mae looked up, pondering whether she should just tell him that she was going to walk home, but looking into those blue eyes she found it impossible to say so. "Yeah, sure." She said, defeated.

Following Matt out of the classroom, Mae stared at her feet, desperately trying to ignore the stares that were coming from everyone in the class—Caroline included. She kept her gaze to the ground until they had finally reached Matt's truck—still parked in the exact same spot as this morning. Mae pulled herself into the seat and slammed the truck door behind her. Mae didn't spare a glance at Matt and after a few moments, the truck was roaring to life and they were driving out of the parking lot. Nothing was said between them, until they had reached the main streets.

"Are you . . . alright?" Mae looked at Matt and nodded. "You seem quiet."

Mae snorted. "I'm always quiet."

"Quieter than usual." Matt corrected. "It isn't about that stupid rumour going around is it? Just for the record, I told everyone who asked that there was nothing going on between us."

Mae didn't know whether to be offended or relieved by what he had said. "Thanks." Mae settled with. "But it isn't because of that . . ."—_entirely—_". . . I . . ."—Mae sighed—"It was just something that Caroline said."

Matt looked at her with concern. "What did she say?"

"Nothing." Mae muttered. "It was nothing—forgot I even said anything."

Thankfully, Matt consented to her wish and didn't further the matter, but rather changed the conversation. "Will I be seeing you at the party in the woods tonight?"

Mae furrowed her brows. "I didn't even realise there was a party." Mae then shook her head and said: "But, no—you won't."—and when Matt looked at her questionably, she then continued—"Parties aren't my thing. I'd much rather stay at home, read a book, watch a movie . . ." Mae trailed off.

They had reached the Forbes household now, pulling to a gradual stop.

"Shall I pick you up tomorrow?"

Mae shook her head. "I think it's best if you didn't." Mae muttered. "My leg's better now—by tomorrow, I should be able to walk on it"—_hopefully_—"and I'd rather not be the talk of the school again."

"Mae . . ." Matt started.

"No, this is what I want. But that isn't to say that I don't appreciate what you've done these past two days." Mae awkwardly shuffled on her seat. "Thanks."

Matt sighed reluctantly. "You're welcome."

"Bye." Mae said and then opened the door, stumbling out of the car.

Like yesterday, Matt waited until she had reached it safely to the porch and then drove off (this time without honking the horn). As Matt peeled away, Caroline's silver Mercedes pulled into the drive. She stepped out of the car and walked up to the porch, where Mae had waited to hold open the door for her. "I see Matt Donovan dropped you off again. Are you paying him to be your chauffeur or something?" Caroline snarled before storming into the house and to her bedroom, without waiting to hear Mae's reply. Tumnus hissed at Caroline as she passed him. "Fuck off!" Caroline screamed at the cat, stormed into her room, and slammed the door behind her.

Mae didn't see Caroline again for the rest of the night, only heard her leave the house three hours later (obviously heading to the party in the woods that Matt was talking about).

When Liz returned from work an hour after that, she said that Caroline had texted her saying she was going to Elena's for the night, which confirmed that this was no innocent teenage party in the woods. Mae helped Liz cook dinner (lasagne) and they sat in the kitchen eating in silence until the sound of Liz's phone chimed from her pocket. "I've got to go." Liz said, ending the call. "Apparently there was some party in the woods and someone's been attacked"—Mae froze—"Do you know anything about this?" Mae shook her head. "Well, I just hope that Caroline's still at Elena's." Liz muttered lowly. "I'll see you tomorrow morning, no doubt. Don't leave the house tonight."

Liz quickly left, leaving Mae alone in the silent house.

The silence was momentarily broken by the sound of Tumnus meowing. Mae looked down and sighed. "Just us again, Tumnus."

…

_September 9__th__ 2009_

Mae was woken up around midnight by some kind of disturbance in the house. Mae opened her eyes with a groan, to see the digits on her alarm clock glowing back at her, informing her it was two in the morning. The disturbance had been the sound of a door opening and closing. At first Mae had thought it was the front door and Liz had returned home late, but then she realised the sound had came from down the hall—towards Caroline's bedroom. Mae froze—wasn't Caroline meant to be at _Elena's_? at least, that was what Liz had said. She guessed Caroline would actually go to Elena's, to have some sort of proof when morning came.

Mae pulled the covers off her bed. Tumnus who had been at the foot of her bed, meowed loudly at being woken by Mae's movement. "Shhh!" she said to the kitten. She picked Tumnus up and put him into her arms, figuring having Tumnus with her would offer some kind of comfort as she went to investigate the sound. Mae stepped out of her bedroom, quietly opening the door and tip-toed down the corridor. When she reached Caroline's bedroom, she found the door shut. Holding Tumnus to her body with one arm, she went to open Caroline's door when—

A sound came from the kitchen that sounded like a clatter.

Had Caroline returned home?

_Oh God, what if she's drunk._

Mae padded back up the corridor towards the kitchen. The light from inside the fridge lit the linoleum floor with an eerie bright white glow. As Mae stepped into the kitchen, she spotted the figure roaming through the fridge. However, the figure she saw was certainly not Caroline—in fact it wasn't even _female_; but rather a man and not just a man—a _naked _man.

"Oh my God." The words slipped out of her mouth involuntarily. Her wide eyes stared straight at his ass that was as bare as the day he was born. The man turned around and suddenly she was staring at his—"Argh!" Mae looked away from his—his—_thing_. Her eyes looked upwards, finally looking at the face of her intruder and gulped loudly. Black hair, messy and sticking up in directions, pale icy blue eyes, a strong square jaw, pale skin, and a smirk stretched across his lips.

"Hel-_lo_ beautiful." He drawled, smirking wickedly. His pale blue eyes surveyed her face and slowly ranked his eyes up and down her body, eventually landing on the kitten in her arms. "Nice pussy you have there."

**SO...**

**What did you think?**

**Ha-ha. The ending was just something I HAD to do.**

**ANYWAYS, leave your reviews telling me what you guys thought of this! I'd love you know.**

**I won't be copying the episode dialogue word-for-word, it'll be a lot like how this chapter is, but the chapter plots will be based around each episode. This chapter was based on 'Pilot'.  
**

**Next chapter: Night of the Comet**


	2. Night of the Comet

_September 9__th__ 2009_

Mae Fell was having the weirdest week she has ever experienced in her entire life. But after everything that has happened this week—from being hit by a car belonging to one of the two most popular girls in MFHS to the entire school thinking she was dating Matt Donovan of _all_ people—_this _has to be the weirdest of the lot of them; here she was, at two in the morning, staring at a strange [_handsome_] man who was standing in her _kitchen _that just so happened to be _butt naked._ Whether she was in fact awake right now was something she was doubting very much. What next? Caroline will compliment her?

"W-Who t-the Hell are you and wh-what are you doing in this house?" Mae stuttered, finally, after some long time. Her eyes were looking everywhere but at the naked man standing in her kitchen, her cheeks as hot as lava, and her mouth excruciatingly dry.

Before the naked man could open his mouth to speak, a shrill voice came from behind them.

"Mae! What the Hell?" Mae turned on her spot, coming to realise she was still holding her Egyptian Mau kitten—Tumnus—when he dug his claws into her flimsy night tee. There, dressed in nothing but a sheet wrapped messily around her body, was her cousin Caroline. And then Mae began to connect the dots; Caroline had brought back a _man_—and not just any man, a man who certainly didn't belong at Mystic Falls High. Caroline had brought back and slept with a stranger. "What are you doing just gawking at me? Leave!" Caroline hissed. Mae, feeling completely flustered and disorientated, obeyed; ducking her head low and not once looking back at the naked man still present in the kitchen, she began to walk out of the room, but before she could leave Caroline stepped in front of her. "Don't you _dare _say anything about this to Mom."

And then she stepped away and Mae quickly left the kitchen, clutching Tumnus to her chest tightly.

By the next morning, Mae had barely slept a wink after returning to her room. She heard the sound of the door opening and closing not long after she retired to her room, followed by the distinctive shrill sound of Caroline's giggle, and then everything was silent. Mae lay in her bed, absentmindedly running her fingers through Tumnus' fur, staring at the pitch black ceiling until cracks of light began to seep through the crack of her curtains. By four o'clock, sleep alluded Mae, and what felt like a second of darkness later she was being awakened by the incessant chime of her alarm-clock. Groggily, Mae dragged herself out of bed, contemplating whether she should just miss Math class and sleep in until noon, but after a steaming hot shower her energy seemed to return in small doses.

When she walked through into the kitchen, freshly washed and dressed, she was surprised (or not surprised) to see Caroline sitting down at the table with Aunt Liz. When Liz greeted Mae with the usual 'good-morning', Caroline's eyes shot up and focused on her with a steely glare. Obviously Caroline had decided to stick around to make sure Mae didn't say anything she shouldn't to Liz over breakfast. Caroline's eyes followed her around the kitchen, as Mae filled Tumnus' bowls and made herself the usual cereal, until it was interrupted by a chime and then Caroline's attention was absorbed into her phone.

"Good sleep?" Liz asked, lightly, as Mae had sat down (the furthest away from Caroline) and began digging into her cereal.

Caroline's hands around her phone froze and her knuckles went white. She looked directly up at Mae, waiting impatiently for Mae's reply.

Mae took a quick glance in Caroline's direction, meeting her eyes momentarily before quickly looking back down at the Cheerios she pushed around with her spoon. "Fine." She answered in what she hoped was a nonchalant tone of voice.

"And you Caroline? Did you manage to get any sleep at Elena's?"

Mae couldn't help but look up and watch Caroline's lie take place.

Caroline smiled a sickly sweet smile and answered: "Yes, Mommy. We watched some movies until eleven and then went straight to bed." The lie rolled right off her tongue.

"Good." Liz said, believing the lie without question that made Mae want to roll her eyes or make a snorting noise. "So you didn't know anything about this party in the woods then." She then went on to say, carefully, looking at her daughter with a slight narrow of the eye, quirk of the brow and suspicion in her voice. Caroline furrowed her eyebrows, in what appeared to be confusion, and shook her head. "Okay, well, there was a party in the woods last night—someone from your school got hurt: Vicki Donovan."

Mae's ears quirked at the name. Matt's sister was the person who was attacked last night. "Is she okay?" Mae asked.

Liz glanced at Mae and nodded. "Yes, _fortunately_. Luckily she was found before things got worse, but she's still in hospital."

"What attacked her?"

Liz pursed her lips into a thin straight line and answered tensely: "A mountain lion." Liz looked down at her watch. "I better get to work." She said, scraping her chair back.

"Work?" Caroline asked. "But you just walked through the door."

Mae then noticed the rings below Liz's eyes.

"I'm sorry Caroline. I'll see you tonight though."

Caroline looked like she didn't quite believe her.

Liz gave Caroline and Mae a smile, to which Mae was the only one who returned it, and left moments later. Moments after the door shut, Caroline also scraped her chair back loudly and left the room without even glancing Mae's way. Mae watched her leave the room. Caroline's phone rang some point after and Mae listened to the sound of Caroline's voice talk to Bonnie until the front door slammed shut and she was alone once more. Mae then sighed and looked down at her barely touched, now soggy, bowl of cereal.

This time, when Mae walked out of the house, there was no familiar truck sitting at the bottom of the street. Matt was no doubt with his sister after the incident, like any brother would be, and hardly expected to see him at school today. But when Mae arrived at school, after a slow but pleasant walk, the first thing she spotted was Matt standing on the verge of grass talking to none other than Elena Gilbert. As Mae spotted the two of them, she couldn't help but reminded of the words Caroline had said to her yesterday in the library. Caroline did had some truth in her words; Matt was still had a thing for Elena—that was obvious, the whole school knows it. What about Elena? Did she still have feelings for him too? Mae spotted the new guy, Stefan Salvatore, sitting a short distance away looking in the direction of the ex-couple. Did he know the history between Elena and Matt?

Mae's musings were interrupted by the sound of her phone ringing. It was work calling. They wanted the extra waitress for the night, what with Vicki stuck in hospital. Mae distinctly remembered tonight was the Night of the Comet. Considering the whole town normally turns up to these social conventions, the Grill was most likely going to be busy tonight and will need all the pairs of hands they could get. Whilst talking to her boss, Mae spotted Matt walking away from Elena in the direction of his truck—obviously leaving campus, despite the fact school hadn't even started. He happened to glance her way and spotted her. He nodded at her curtly before stepped into his truck and left.

The school day was long and dreary. Not much happened; people seemed to forget Mae again, for all people were talking about was the party in the woods and the attack on Vicki Donovan. Considering the way the party ended, Mae was glad she never involved herself in those kinds of things. By History class, people were sharing their stories on how they escaped being caught by police or how they were now dealing with the consequences of being caught. Mae sat in her usual seat, doodling on her notepad, half-listening to the talk going on behind her. It wasn't until Tanner appeared through the door that the talk of last night disappeared.

Tanner announced they would be working in pairs for this lesson. And because Tanner was the teacher that he was, he had already prepared the pairs in which people would be partnered with for the hour. Mae listened to the list being rattled off, ignoring the groans and cheers when each pair was announced, until her name was called. "Fell and Davis." Mae's eyes glanced to the very back of the room, in the direction she knew her partner for the lesson usually sat. At the very back corner of the room, Cassidy Davis looked up from her black nails at the call of her name. Her dark hazel eyes then silently moved over to where Mae sat, on the complete opposite side of the room. Their eyes met and she nodded to the empty chair beside her in indication for Mae to come to her.

Mae gathered her belongings and moved over to the back of the room where Cassidy had returned her attention to her nails, chewing gum. From the corner of her eye, she spotted Caroline settle herself beside Stefan, looking less ecstatic than Mae would have expected. When Mae reached Cassidy's desk, Cassidy parted her gaze from her nails and looked up at her.

"Hey." Mae nervously placed herself beside Cassidy.

Cassidy quirked a brow. "Hey." She answered back, lowly, her hazel eyes examining her slowly. "You're Mae, right?"

Mae nodded slowly. "And you're Cassidy?"

Mae watched as Cassidy's jaw tightened. "Cassie."

"Oh, sorry." Mae looked away, sheepish and intimidated.

There was a moment pause. "It's fine." _Cassie_ finally said in a way that Mae think she shouldn't make that slip of name again. "So, are we meant to answer a question or something?" Cassie drawled and the two got to work.

Working with Cassie wasn't half as bad as Mae feared it would be. When it came to group work like this, Mae usually found herself doing the work because she was usually the only one that seemed to be bothered about making the effort. However, this time was different; despite her seemingly careless attitude that she usually gave off, Cassie actually did make her contribution to the work and Mae wasn't left answering the questions herself. The conversation was kept work related, until half way through answering the set of questions they were assigned by Tanner, when Cassie asked a question.

"Are you dating Matt Donovan?" she asked casually, without even looking up from her work.

Mae looked around self-consciously and back at Cassie. "No." she said quickly.

Cassie glanced up from her, her thick but perfectly shaped eyebrow quirked. "The rest of the school seems to think so."

Mae shuffled in her seat uncomfortably. "Well I'm not." She said, slightly snappier than she had meant it to sound.

"Alright." Cassie held up her hands in defence. "I guess I touched a nerve. What should we put for the last question?" And then the conversation was dropped.

Mae looked at Cassie as she read through the question for the second time, a disinterested look upon her face as her hazel eyes followed the words. Cassie was pretty—her hazel eyes were framed with dark brown lashes that matched the colour of her eyebrows, her cheeks and nose were dusted with golden freckles, and her wavy hair was a natural glossy dark red. Surely someone as pretty as she was would be friends with Caroline, Bonnie or Elena or apart of the cheer squad. But she wasn't a cheerleader and Caroline, Bonnie nor Elena seemed to pay her no notice. Come to think of it, no-one seemed to pay much notice of Cassie Davis. Maybe, Mae contemplated to herself, she was like her—a wallflower—but looking at the redheaded beauty, Cassie didn't exactly strike Mae as a wallflower.

Silently, Mae turned her attention back to her work.

When the bell rang minutes later, Tanner collected up the work they had done and dismissed the class. Without so much of a word towards Mae, Cassie threw her shoulder bag over her body and walked out of the room.

After school, Mae went back to the Forbes household to change. She changed into the Mystic Grill uniform and headed back to the town's square, where the Grill was. Because it wasn't quite dark yet, the town's square was quiet, but the event was starting to be set up on the plane of grass in the middle. The crowded tables were the first thing Mae spotted once she walked into the grill. And much to her dismay, but not her surprise, she spotted Caroline, Elena and Bonnie seated together at a table chatting. Mystic Grill was a popular hangout for MFHS students; if you needed a place to meet, Mystic Grill was usually the place. Mae turned her gaze from her cousin and her friends and made her way to the backroom where her boss was shocking shelves. Rob, the owner and boss, looked extremely pleased to see her there and sent her straight out to serve tables.

For the next hour or two, Mae immersed herself in the work. She moved between serving tables, taking orders, to dealing with drinks behind the bar when the bartender needed the extra hands. At one point, Mae had to serve Caroline and her friends. Elena and Bonnie both greeted her kindly as she set down their orders on their table. Bonnie even went as far as to ask how her ankle was. Mae lessened the girl's guilt by telling her that it was fine (purposefully not mentioning the fact her ankle was still throbbing at times). Meanwhile, Caroline completely ignored her, giving her the blind-eye and as soon as Mae had put their drinks down onto the table Caroline had pulled her friends back into conversation. Soon after Mae spotted Elena leave and not long after that, Bonnie and Caroline followed suit.

Vicki Donovan also turned up at some point during the shift, to which ended with an argument between Rob and Vicki.

Around 4 o'clock Mae had a ten minute break which involved sending Liz a text informing her about her shift (which she had forgotten to do beforehand) and having a quick drink of cool lemonade before she was shuffled back out by Rob. Mae served for another two hours straight and the Grill appeared to be getting busier by the minute. Mae found herself having to squeeze through people swarmed around the bar, tables and the pool table, just to serve. The noise level increased and Mae was already feeling a headache come on. But she kept going—fantasying about what she would do once getting home after this long shift.

Towards the end of those two hours, Mae was sent towards a booth at the back of the grill with three plates of food. Mae wasn't quite surprised to find the customers who sat at the booth was people from her school—one of which being Cassie Davis—but what did surprise her was the fact that Cassie Davis looked at her and _smiled_. "Hey Mae." She said, from where she sat—lounging in a booth opposite a boy and girl Mae knew as Ethan and Emilia Sulez, fraternal twins whom are both juniors like Cassie and Mae, though Mae had never had a lesson with either of them.

"Hey?" she replied unsurely.

"Thanks." Cassie exclaimed cheerfully when Mae her order down. This Cassie seemed completely different to the Cassie in her History class this afternoon. "This is Ethan and Emilia; guys, this is Mae."

Mae smiled weakly at the twins; Emilia, a small girl with a round child-like face and curly coffee brown hair, returned her smile with a weak one of her own, whilst her brother raised a hand in greeting. Ethan was tall, cute looking, with a pearly white smile that contrasted with his bronzed skin. Both he and sister are of Mexican descendent. "Hey. I think I've seen you around before." Ethan acknowledged, conversationally. "You're Caroline Forbes' cousin right?" Mae didn't fail to notice the distasteful look on Cassie's face at the mention of Caroline's name.

Mae nodded.

"But Mae is _nothing _like her." Cassie interjected, like it was a good thing. Mae found this baffling—most people seem to think that being nothing like Caroline was a bad thing. "Right, Mae?"

Mae's throat went dry when Cassie turned on her. "Urr . . . sure?" Mae replied unsurely. "Well . . . I better go—work to do."

Cassie, who was now fully absorbed in her food—grabbing her burger and taking a large bite—waved her hand. "Bye Mae." She said between bites, without looking in her direction.

Ethan nodded to her and Emilia squeaked a 'bye' as Mae left.

Cassie or her friends didn't talk to Mae again for the remainder of their stay in the grill. As they left the grill, Cassie gave her a curt nod and casual wave, before they disappeared.

Around the time that the comet was about to arrive, people filed out of the grill leaving it the emptiest as it had been in a long while. Mae remained behind the bar, wiping up spilt drinks and cleaning glasses whilst the bartender went for a break. While her back was turned to the bar, Mae distinctly heard a stool scrape along the wooden floor from behind the bar, signalling she had a customer. She waited until they called for her attention, which came moments later. However the voice she heard had not been a voice she had been expecting.

"I'll have a bourbon, please kitten."

_Kitten_?

Mae whirled on the spot and almost dropped the glass in her hands when she came face-to-face with the naked kitchen man. This time he was wearing clothes, which Mae couldn't quite decide whether she was disappointed or relieved by this sentiment. Mae blushed crimson and ducked her head. "Oh it's you."

The kitchen man smirked wickedly. "Me." He announced dramatically, arms outstretched. "Now, how about that bourbon?" he winked.

Mae licked her dry lips, nodded, and set to work. She felt his captivating eyes follow her around the bar as she made the drink and she tried her best to keep her hand steady as she made the drink. When she handed him the drink, she was a flustered mess. She breathlessly named the price, tucking a piece of stubborn hair behind her ear that only fell back over her eyes moments later.

He was watched her from behind the bar, smirking. "You know what I think?" he huskily murmured. Mae swallowed thickly and shook her head as if saying 'no'. "I think you should give me this on the house." He wiggled a brow at her, his large beautiful blue eyes staring directly into hers. As he said it, she could have sworn she saw his pupils move.

Mae's brow furrowed. What was that strange probing in her mind? It was almost like someone was jabbing her head with needles—sharp and painful at times. "Uh . . . I'm sorry, _sir,_ but you're going to h-have to pay the full price like ev-everyone else." Mae stuttered.

The kitchen man said up straight, his eyes narrowing significantly, like she had said something shocking—obviously he wasn't quite used to not getting what he wanted, Mae thought to herself dryly. "Really?"

Mae raised her eyebrows. "Yeah—really." She said, with a slight tone of irritancy. With a wave of confidence, she held out her hand and placed a hand on her hip. When his eyes moved to her outstretched hand, she wiggled her fingers expectantly.

He looked back up at her, stared at her thoughtfully for some moments, and let out a defeated sigh. "I can't deny a beautiful lady." He said, winking.

He slapped a 50 dollar bill into her palm. Mae looked at it, awkwardly. "Um . . ."

"Keep the change." And then he threw back the continence of the glass, slammed it onto the bar, and walked away.

Mae watched him go with an element of suspicion.

_What a strange guy_, Mae thought to herself, _sexy but strange . . ._

Around 10pm, Robert let Mae go. Mae—who was practically dead on her feet—stumbled back home with heavy-lids and a sleepy mind. She barely paid much notice to the fact she was walking home, at the dead of night, but rather paid more notice to getting home and into her bed. When Mae dragged herself through the door, the first thing she heard was the sound of moaning coming from the down the hall from the direction of Caroline's bedroom. Mae felt nausea build up in her throat. Apparently Caroline had taken her risks and decided to bring a guy back to her bedroom for the second night in a row—and Mae's bets were on the kitchen man that was in her bedroom right now.

As Mae kicked off her shoes, Tumnus sauntered up to her, eyes illuminated in the dark foyer.

"Hey Tumnus," Mae whispered, reaching down to pick Tumnus up, scratching behind his ears. Tumnus began to purr, nuzzling her neck in affection. "Lets get to bed." She murmured and headed straight to her bedroom.

This time, Mae didn't wake to the sounds coming from Caroline's bedroom, not even when a scream sounded. As soon as Mae's head touched the pillow, darkness prevailed.

**Short chapter for this episode. Purely because I feel that not much could have happened for Mae without some how getting involved with the Mystic Falls gang, and I don't want that to happen just yet. **

**Thank you to everyone who has favourite'd, reviewed and followed this story!**

**Next chapter: Friday Night Bites**

**P.S. There are linked pictures on my profile that show how I think the OC characters look. Feel free to have a look :)**


	3. Friday Night Bites

_September 10__th__ 2009_

The next morning Mae woke up to the usual ear-splitting sound of her alarm and, consequentially, a throbbing head. As she waddled to the bathroom, she noticed the pain in her ankle was almost gone and wasn't half as sore as it had been yesterday. She stepped into the shower, still rubbing the tiredness from her eyes, and began to wash herself. She lathered and washed her body with a fresh-smelling body wash and used her usual raspberry-scented shampoo and conditioner in her hair. After washing and drying her body, she dressed in a simple white long-sleeved tee with a pair of black jeans and cardigan overtop, before moving onto drying her hair. It was as she was drying her hair that she could have sworn she heard a _crashing _sound coming from Caroline's room, but she shook it off and continued about her morning routine.

When she walked into the kitchen, the first thing she spotted was Liz's empty seat. She guessed Liz had either: a) already gone to work; or b) not come back from work yet—either scenario was likely with Liz. Mae fed Tumnus and went onto making her breakfast. She pulled out a bowl, filled it with Cheerios and headed to the fridge to retrieve the carton of milk. Grabbing the milk from the back of the fridge, Mae closed the fridge door and . . . yelped. There, standing where the fridge door had been, was none other than the kitchen guy which confirmed her suspicions on who exactly Caroline brought home again last night. He lent against the kitchen surfaces, wearing nothing but jeans (at least this time he wasn't naked), smirking from ear-to-ear.

"Good morning." He smirked at her shocked expression.

Mae had to tighten her grasp on the carton of milk, which had loosened in her shock. "What are you doing here?"

The kitchen guy's smirk didn't lessen, only widened—and if anything, became smugger. "I think you already know the answer to that." He finished with a subjective wiggle of the brows.

Mae's cheeks went aflame. "N-No—I-I meant what are you doing out _here_. Y-You could get c-caught."

"By who?" he retorted. "The Sherriff hasn't been seen all night and you already know _all _the dirty secrets." He patronisingly tapped twice her on the tip of her nose. There was something in the way that Damon said it that suggested there was a deeper meaning to what he had just said latterly, that only confused her.

Mae furrowed her brow in confusion. "R_ight_." She drawled. "Excuse me." She muttered, gesturing to the bowl of cereal upon the kitchen surface he leant upon. Surprisingly he obliged, stepping aside, and let her pour her milk onto the cereal. She put the carton of milk back into the fridge and shut the door again. "Hey!" she exclaimed; the kitchen man had—somehow—retrieved a spoon and was now digging into her cereal.

Kitchen man looked at her, smugly. "What?" his voice feigned innocence, mouth full of cereal. Even with a mouth full of food, he somehow managed to make eating cereal sexy.

Mae stared at him for several, short-lived moments and then sighed. "Fine." She turned away, mumbling to herself, reaching up to retrieve another bowl from the cupboard above. As she reached up to retrieve the bowl, she felt eyes on her—she glanced sideways to see the kitchen man looking at her . . . or more specifically, at her stomach. She glanced downwards, blushed deeply when she saw her top had risen; she quickly yanked the top down which caused the kitchen man to pull his eyes upwards and give her the quirk of the eyebrow. Mae quickly looked away when their eyes met and continued making her second bowl of cereal, whilst the kitchen man munched on hers happily.

Around the time she had put the carton of milk back into the fridge for the second time, Tumnus had finished his food and had now moved over to inspect the kitchen man; he padded across the linoleum floor and was now sniffing around the kitchen man's feet. The kitchen man jabbed the kitten with his foot which caused Tumnus to meow. The jab had been intent to get the kitten away from him, but Tumnus hadn't moved. "This is your cat?" kitchen man acknowledged disinterestedly. Mae walked over to the kitchen table, with her bowl of cereal, and nodded silently. Kitchen man sighed, staring down at the kitten with a bored expression on his face. Mae wondered, momentarily, whether she should call Tumnus away but kitchen man didn't seem to have any aversion against the cat.

There were a few moments of silence, the two of them quietly munching on their cereal, and then . . .

"Ugh!" kitchen man exclaimed. "Ge' off!" he said through a mouthful of food.

Tumnus had begun licking his feet.

"Tumnus!" Mae called. Tumnus backed off and slowly paraded towards her, where she scratched behind his ears. "Good boy."

The kitchen man was watching the interaction with an amused smirk. "_Tumnus_?"

Mae looked down at her food and blushed heavily. "He's named after the character from _The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe_."

"You named your cat after a _faun_?" kitchen man snorted.

Mae quirked an eyebrow. "You've read it?"

Kitchen man narrowed his eyes. "_Heard _of it."

"My Mom used to read it me all the time as a child." Mae mumbled through her embarrassment. She had been six at the time; she had been so in love with the books, she had even convinced her entire family to call her 'Lucy' after one of the main characters. Her Mom was also read the books as a child—Mae's grandmother being originally from England, where she had brought the books as a child herself. One could say being read _The Chronicles of Narnia_ was a tradition of sorts, passed down through three generations. If Mae were to be lucky enough to have children in her future, she would most likely continue the tradition.

Kitchen man had uprooted himself from where he had positioned himself on the kitchen surfaces and moved towards her. "The Sherriff's sister?" he questioned, referring to her Mom.

Mae looked at him suspiciously. "Yeah . . ."

Kitchen man nodded his head in the direction of Caroline's bedroom. "She mentioned it." he drawled disinterestedly. "I assumed the two of you were sisters . . ."

Mae snorted. "Let me guess—Caroline wasn't happy about that assumption." Kitchen man looked at her and shrugged nonchalantly in which Mae guessed to be agreement. Mae looked back down at her cereal—suddenly she wasn't quite so eager to eat now he was sitting opposite her. When he had sat down, a thought—no, question—had ran through her mind: "Why her?" Mae blurted, looking up. Kitchen man had been looking at her the whole time. "Why Caroline?" she asked the question that had been probing her mind. Kitchen man simply shrugged. Mae cringed, feeling like she had put her foot in it. "I mean, I understand _why_—Caroline is beautiful, confident and quick-witted but she's also . . ."—

"A bitch?" kitchen man smirked.

Mae looked away, frowning. "That wasn't what I was going to say."

"But it's true though—she's a bitch."

"Then . . . why . . . _y'know_ . . ." Mae awkwardly muttered.

Kitchen man smirked and shrugged again. "Maybe that's the way I like my prey."

_Prey? _Mae repeated mentally, feeling quite uncomfortable about the fact that the man had referred to her cousin as _prey_. Mae began to play awkwardly with her food, pushing the Cheerios around with her spoon in circular motions. There were several moments of silence and Mae could feel the kitchen man staring intently at her which only made her body spasm, fidget and grow hotter. As the silence ticked on, the more excruciating it came. "So,"—Mae cleared her throat—"Wh-What brings you to Mystic Falls?"

Kitchen man cocked his head to the side. "What makes you think I had a reason to come here?"

Mae shrugged. "Not many people choose to come to a small town like Mystic Falls on their own free will." She replied.

"Some people like small towns."

Mae looked up at him through her lashes. "Do you? . . . Like small towns, I mean." Kitchen man smirked and shook his head. "So why are you here?"

"Y'know, that's an awfully private question to ask a stranger."

Mae snapped her head up alarmed. "O-oh, s-sorry." She stammered.

Kitchen man chuckled and then answered: "I came here with my brother." He answered casually.

"Your brother . . ."—Mae trialled off and then she noticed; she noticed his features in a completely new light—"You're Stefan Salvatore's brother." She stated.

His left eye and lip twitched. "Damon." he amended stiffly. The name seemed to suit him.

Was Mae sensing hostility?

"You two really don't look that alike." Mae pointed out.

Damon smirked. "Good." He then winked cheekily that make her heart flutter. "I don't suppose you're like the rest of the female population at high school, infatuated with my brother?"

Mae shifted uncomfortably in her chair, thinking of Caroline and her infatuation with Stefan. "Actually," Mae cleared her throat. "I've barely spoken three words to him."

Damon narrowed his eyes. "So you don't find him attractive?"

"Well, I wouldn't say that . . ."—Damon cocked a brow—". . . H-he does seem to have the obvious characteristics t-that s-some would depict as a-attractive I-I suppose"—Damon leant back in his chair, smirking, with his hands behind his head, pulling Mae's attention to his perfectly sculptured chest—"B-But I'm definitely not _infatuated_." Mae spluttered. _Not like Caroline. _Damon continued to stare at her with an element of amusement and Mae felt uncomfortable with being his centre of amusement. "S-So," Mae stuttered "You and your brother are apart of the Founding families. Will you be joining the council?"

Damon shrugged, dropping his hands from behind his head.

"Do you have a job?" Mae questioned.

Damon grinned. "Tormenting my brother is my full-time job."

Mae was suddenly starting to think this man was perfect for Caroline. "Did you go to college?"

"A long time ago." Damon said, as if it was funny.

Mae blinked. _A long time ago?_ How old was he? He couldn't be any older than twenty-four/twenty-five. He couldn't be any older than that _surely_—but then again, people are doing a lot to look younger these days (not that she could imagine Damon being the type to take prize in his looks . . . at least, not in the scale of putting anti-aging cream on every night). Mae chuckled quietly to herself at the thought. Damon cocked at her head, giving her a questioning look. Mae looked away and up at the clock. She gaped and jumped to her feet: "I'm going to be late!" she wailed, she whipped around on the spot and began to rush towards the foyer. When she was about to leave the kitchen, Damon called her back.

"Kitten," he called after her. Scrunching her nose up at the nickname, Mae turned back to him. He had stood up from the table—the two bowls of barely-touched cereal discarded—and walked up to her. Mae felt her breath hitch when he came to an abrupt stop in front of her, only a foot apart from each other. "How about we keep this conversation we just had in here a secret, hm?" Mae's heart began to thump in her chest when he moved to brush aside a stray piece of dark honey-brown hair. "We wouldn't want Caroline, _or anyone else_, finding out we've been chatting now do we?" Damon was now within kissing distance of her. Mae was indefinitely sure that her heart just stopped beating. He was taller—a foot taller, at least—but then again, Mae was small . . . everyone seemed to be taller than she was. "Don't tell anyone we spoke." He then said, in a sudden commanding voice, his icy blue eyes staring directly into hers. And once again, Mae could have sworn she saw his pupils flicker.

"O-O-Ok." Mae stuttered. "I won't tell anyone we spoke." She repeated.

Damon stepped back, with an almost triumphant look on his face. "Good girl." He tapped her nose again patronisingly. "Now, run along before you miss the school bus." He teased.

Mae walked away, baffled and flustered, with no understanding of what had just happened there.

When Mae reached school, she was still flustered and baffled—so much so she completely oblivious to the fact Stefan Salvatore had looked her way when she passed him and Elena on the plane of grass. She headed straight to the girls restrooms, where she went straight to the sink. She had gone to the girls restrooms in the Math and Science building; Mae usually went to these restrooms primarily because they were always so quiet—no-one used them, and that's the way Mae liked it. She slipped through the door without so much of a sound and headed to the sinks, intent on splashing her face with ice-cold water to wake her out of this flustered state, but as she reached the to turn on the tap, she heard a noise that made her pause.

It was the sound of crying—coming from one of the cubicles.

Through the mirror, Mae looked along the row of cubicles until she spotted the one with the closed door. Underneath the cubicle door, she could see two pairs of feminine shoes. A girl was crying. Mae found herself stuck; does she turn on the tap and make her presence known? Or does she turn and leave? After a few moments of contemplation, she decides on the latter. She begins to turn on her heel when the cubicle door opens, and a girl shuffled out that Mae recognised immediately. It was Grace Gilbert—otherwise known as the younger sister of Elena and sophomore. Not many people thought of Grace, when thinking of the Gilbert children—she was the middle child between two children that were well known for polar opposite reasons; Jeremy was the drug user, the one that went off the rails; and Elena was the beautiful, popular, do-no-wrong one.

Grace stopped short upon spotting Mae standing there, in the toilets, watching her leave the cubicle. It was then that Mae became aware of the white stick clutched tightly in Grace's hand. There was a moment of silence as the two of them both realised that Mae knew what exactly was in Grace's hand. Grace broke the silence by quickly thrusting the white stick into her bag and ran out of the door, pale as a ghost, with tears still running down her cheeks.

All Mae could think as she watched Grace escape from the toilets was one thing: Grace Gilbert was pregnant.

Grace Gilbert lingered in her thoughts for the beginning of Math class. There was no other explanation for the way Grace had reacted—usually when a sixteen year old is holding a pregnancy stick crying it meant they had joined the statistic of teenage pregnancies. As she placed herself down in her usual seat in the Math classroom, she thought of Grace and the Gilberts. Since loosing their parents back in May, the Gilbert children have often been the topic of discussion; Miranda and Grayson Gilbert had been well liked by just about everyone, meaning their death was still lingering in their minds. They had been kind people, just like Mae's own parents had been for that matter, only the Gilberts were more in the public eye, per say. Mae's parents kept to themselves and Mae's father wasn't quite the socialite the Gilberts were, meaning they went to little social Founding Family functions.

Nonetheless, Mae could relate to the Gilbert children's pain. Mae knew what it was like to loose a Mom and a Dad—she also knew what it was like to loose a brother too. In some ways, Mae thought they were lucky to have each other; all Mae had was a workaholic aunt, an aunt she hadn't seen or spoken to for a very long time, and a cousin who cares more about herself than anyone else. But Mae wasn't complaining—she was still better off than some people are. At least she wasn't orphaned and moving between care homes. And from the looks of it, the Gilbert children aren't orphaned either—they had their Aunt Jenna, whom had come to live with them soon after Miranda and Grayson's death.

Mae sighed aloud.

"Are you OK?" Mae jumped in her seat. The voice had come from beside her; she turned her head and looked at Stefan Salvatore. Mae hadn't even heard him appear next to her, but she guessed that had something to do with the fact she was so lost in her own thoughts. Mae nodded, flustered. The concerned look on Stefan's face didn't seem to waver and Mae found herself startled by his concern. "You seem . . . distant—a lot on your mind?"

Mae looked down at her hands and shrugged. "Something like that." She murmured. Considering Stefan was involved with Elena Gilbert she guessed bringing up Grace Gilbert's situation was out of the question.

"Anything I can help with? I've been told I'm a good listener."

Mae blinked, shocked by the offer. "N-No. I'm fine, b-but thanks for the offer."

Stefan seemed to stare at her thoughtfully for a moment, before nodding. "The offer's open if you ever need it."

Just then, the teacher walked through the door and lesson began. Mae watched the teacher, half-minded, trying to wrap her head around what had just happened. Sure, she knew Stefan was a nice guy, but . . . but Mae wasn't quite used to kindness of that extent. Of course—she reasoned with herself—the statement could have only been half-hearted; he may have just said it for the sake of it—not exactly expecting for her to follow through with the offer; common courtesy.

Mae didn't see Grace again for the remainder of the day, but she did find herself scanning the crowds in the corridors a little more closely as she walked between each class. She knew she should probably keep herself out of it—it was Grace's business not hers—but a part of Mae just wanted to let Grace know that she wouldn't tell anyone about her, well, situation. Not that she would know how to approach Grace about the subject—she was normally the one being approached, not the other way around.

In History class, they weren't put in groups again, meaning Mae didn't work with Cassie again. But when Cassie entered the room, she did spare Mae a nod of greeting before ascending towards her usual spot in the far corner of the classroom. During History class, Tanner seemed to pick up a fight with Stefan (which seems to be a reoccurring event nowadays). Mae, along with the rest of the class, seems to be astounded by the vast knowledge Stefan seems to have on History. Mae ultimately pinned it down to Stefan having a passion for history, but there was something peculiar about the way that Stefan effortlessly listing off precise dates one by one. Regardless, Stefan's knack of historical dates was the last thing on her mind when she left the class at the end of the day.

"Hey, Mae!" a voice called after her as she left the classroom.

Mae turned on the spot to see Matt running after her. A few people stopped in the hallway to look, which made Mae uncomfortable and stiff. "Hey Matt." She gave him a strained smile, aware of the eyes watching them as he stopped a few feet in front of her. "How's Vicki?"

Matt's smile faltered, informing Mae that it was a touchy subject. "Better,"—he lied—"Thanks for asking." Mae smiled shyly and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. "I wanted to know how your ankle was. I didn't get a chance to speak to you yesterday because, well, y'know."

Mae nodded awkwardly. "It's, uh, fine thanks. Back to normal."

"Good. So you won't be needing any lifts tonight." Matt smiled. Mae shook her head. "Well . . . I better get to football practice. See you around Mae."

Mae waved weakly and Matt disappeared. It was as Matt disappeared that Mae spotted Grace walking through the crowds, head-down. Mae chewed her lip and with a mental push, she walked in Grace's direction, but before she could get within speaking distance of Grace, the sixteen year old's head snapped up in her direction. As soon as her eyes landed on Mae's, they widened, and she dashed out of school and out of sight. Mae sighed in response. _At least you tried._ Mae told herself, mentally patting herself on the back for actually attempting to approach someone.

When Mae got home, she went straight to her room to get a head start on her homework. She worked until about four, when an exhausted Liz came home.

"I'm sorry for not being here this morning, Mae. Is Caroline around?" Mae shook her head. Liz sighed and collapsed on the couch. Mae went into the kitchen, fixed Liz up a coffee, and offered to make dinner tonight. "Thank you, Mae." Liz said, looking extremely grateful by Mae's offer. "These past few days has been rough,"—Liz paused, hesitated and then said—"We've been having quite a few animal attacks."

Mae cringed. "The same mountain lion?"

Liz grimaced and nodded. "But don't worry, Mae,"—she then said, quickly, after some while—"We have everything under control. Just . . . be careful won't you?"

Mae nodded and smiled weakly.

The evening was quiet. Caroline didn't return home until late and when she entered the house she informed Liz she had been at Elena's having dinner before retiring to her bedroom. Liz went to bed not long after and Mae was left to lock up. She turned off the TV both Liz and she had been watching before Caroline's arrival and descended to her bedroom. She pulled off her clothes and slipped into her nightwear. As she closed the curtains, she spotted a crow perched on the tree outside her bedroom. Once the lights and curtains were shut, she went straight to bed and fell asleep as soon as her bed touched the pillow.

...

_September 11__th__ 2009_

The next day followed to similar fashion to the days before; Liz was sitting at the kitchen table when she entered (no Damon today, thankfully) and Caroline left not long after Mae had fed Tumnus. After Liz left for work, Mae slipped on her boots and jacket and left the house. The only different thing about today was that it was Friday which meant one thing: weekend starts tonight. Not that the weekend had much importance for Mae, she was scheduled to work for the entire weekend—like agreed with Rob—at the grill. Mae arrived at school quicker than she had these past few days, which played sign on the fact that her ankle was healed. Mae was no longer feeling any pain as she walked and the bruising had gone down significantly.

Throughout the day people were buzzing with excitement for the game tonight. Tonight was, as Mae figured out, the first football game of the year. Timberwolves of Mystic Falls High Vs. Lions of Central High School, apparently. Mae, who never contributed to that kind of thing, wasn't exactly joining on the excitement like everyone else seemed to be and Stefan picked up on that during Math class when the teacher had left for a short period of time.

"You don't exactly seem as excited as the rest of the school for the game tonight." Stefan stated.

Mae gave a weak smile. "That would be because I'm not." Mae licked her lips and elaborated when Stefan gave her the cock of the brow. "I'm not exactly into all this."

"Football?"

Mae shrugged. "Football, homecoming, prom…" Mae glanced side-ways at the new guy, blushing when she caught his expression. "Sorry, you probably think I'm weird."

"No, no,"—Stefan quickly amended—"Not at all. It's just unusual to hear a girl say she isn't into _prom_."

"I suppose it is quite unusual." Mae smiled sheepishly.

Stefan shook his head. "But I'm sure there are plenty of other girls are like you. Sometimes the things we're supposed to like are just overrated."

Mae nodded in agreement. "And prom is one of them."

Stefan snorted. "Of course." He said, like it was the most obvious thing on the Earth. "All that expectation for it to be the best night of your life . . . _so _overrated."

Mae giggled quietly. "Exactly."

Stefan smiled, flashing her his perfect pearly white teeth. "Nice to know we're on the same page."

There conversation didn't go any further than that for their teacher had returned and the lesson had resumed. At lunchtime, Mae made her way to the library where she walked straight to her corner of the room, settled herself on her usual seat at her usual table and pulled out her book from her bag. Today it was _The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe_; after her conversation with Damon yesterday, Mae had felt herself eager to read the book again. It had been a long while since she had read it and she was itching to be absorbed into the world she so often absorbed herself into as a child. She had only just delved into book, when Caroline made her presence known.

"What the Hell is your problem?" Caroline hissed. Mae looked up from her book, almost jumping out of her skin—she hadn't even heard Caroline approach. She was standing at her table, arms crossed over her chest, chiffon scarf tied around her neck and a seething look on her face. "Are you desperate or something?"

Mae, utterly confused, had no idea what Caroline was getting at. "What?"

"This morning—in Math!—giggling with Stefan Salvatore—_Elena's boyfriend_!" Mae opened her mouth but no words came out. "So what—Elena's ex wasn't good enough so you're trying to get the real thing?"

"Wh-What? No!"

Caroline narrowed her eyes. "Just stay away from Stefan Salvatore." Caroline spat, twirled on the spot, and stormed out of the classroom with her chin to the sky.

Mae sighed and dropped her head to the table as soon as Caroline was out of sight. She stayed there for some time until she heard a voice from beside her: "Are you OK?" Mae looked up and spotted Ethan Sulez standing a few feet from her table, looking hesitant. "I heard what Caroline said . . ."—Mae felt her cheeks go aflame—". . . she hasn't upset you has she?" Mae shook her head feverishly, though she was pretty sure her expression had betrayed her. Ethan sighed and approached the table. "Do you want to talk about it?" Mae shook her head again, finding words had failed her. Ethan nodded slowly and looked around him. "Are you here every lunch?" Mae nodded. "Sorry, I don't mean to play twenty-seven questions."

Mae cracked a weak smile. "It's fine." She croaked.

Ethan returned the smile. There was a moment's pause of silence. "So, are you going to the game tonight?"

"No." Mae shook her head.

"Oh. How come?" Ethan asked. "If you don't mind me asking." He then added quickly afterwards.

Mae thought through her possible answers before settling on: "I don't have anyone to go with."

Ethan didn't seem to find this statement awkward, nor did he seem to look at her with sympathy. Instead he smiled as an idea came to mind. "Then why don't you come with me?"—Mae blinked in surprise and Ethan seemed to realise the misinterpretation of his words and quickly said—"Not like a date!" he added quickly. "I mean—why don't you come and me, my sister and my friend? You know my friend: Cassie." Mae cocked her head to the side, finding it hard imagining Cassie going to a high school football game.

Mae nodded. "She's in my History class."

"Is that a yes?"

Mae bit her lip and after a second she said: "Yes, that's a yes."

Ethan grinned. "Great." He then delved his hand into his pocket and pulled out his phone. "Here, entre your number into my phone—I'll text you where to meet us."

"Okay," Mae said, gingerly taking the phone and began tapping in her number.

"Do you have a phone too? I can give you my number as well in-case you get there early . . ."

Mae blushed, realising this would be the first time she exchanged numbers with someone and passed him her phone. They exchanged numbers and then Ethan was on his way, excusing himself, explaining he had to go to check out the library book and go to his locker before lunch ended.

The rest of the school day went by quickly. Caroline ignored Mae for the remainder of the day. When Mae arrived back home, Caroline's Mercedes was absent much to Mae's relief. Liz also wasn't home, which wasn't much of a surprise, for she usually gets home early-to-late evening. Mae spent the first hour or two working on her homework, then watching TV after she was finished. By 4 o'clock, she moved into her bedroom to change. Considering Mae had never been to a high school football game before, Mae had no idea what exactly people _wore_ to them, but eventually settled on a pair of black skinny jeans, a grey lacy top and a black leather jacket. On her feet she slipped on some grey boots that had a small heel at the bottom.

As Mae was about to leave, Liz called to inform her she was working late tonight. From her tone of voice, she seemed apologetic.

"It's fine Aunt Liz,"—Mae reassured—"I'm actually—uh—going to the game tonight."

Pause. "You're . . . going to the _game _tonight?" she repeated, incredulously.

"Yeah." Mae answered back, uncomfortably.

"With who? That Donovan boy?"

"No!" Mae replied immediately, spluttering. "With some people from school: Ethan and Emilia Sulez and Cassie Davis."

Another pause commenced, only this time this pause was longer and seemed tenser than before. "I . . . I didn't realise you were friends with them."

"Well, I'm not—or _wasn't_?" Mae stumbled. "Ethan found out I wasn't going and he invited me to go with them."

"And you said yes?"

Mae shrugged. "I guess?"

Liz sighed. "Well have fun—and be safe."

"I will, Aunt Liz."

The both of them hung up after their good-byes. While her phone was in her hand, she wrote Ethan a text informing him she was on her way, and after reading and re-reading the text numerous of times, she finally pressed sigh with a heave. When the phone announced the text had sent, Mae froze when the doorbell rang. Not quite prepared for whom was on the other side, Mae opened the door gingerly, to reveal Damon Salvatore with an arm leant above his head, against the door frame, wicked smirk appearing when he spotted her on the other side.

"Kitten." Damon greeted, impishly.

Mae cleared her throat awkwardly. "Caroline's not in." she announced, knowingly. Damon raised a brow. Mae resisted the urge to roll her eyes and then added: "She's cheerleading tonight at the high school football game."

"I know."

Mae furrowed her brows in confusion (and frustration). "Then why are you here?"

Damon sighed, exasperatedly. "I thought I could catch her on her way to shaking her pom-poms."

"Sorry—she hasn't even come back this evening."

Her phone went off and Mae pulled it out of her pocket. Ethan had replied, saying to meet her beside the bonfire. Mae, completely unaware there was even a bonfire at football games, re-pocketed the phone confused but figured she'd most likely follow where the people where when she arrived. Mystic Falls High School campus wasn't exactly that big. "Excuse me." Damon stepped back and Mae side-passed him, closing the door. She went to reach down towards the 'welcome matt' where the key was hidden, but Damon had reached her to it, pulling the key out and handing it to a dumbfounded Mae.

"Underneath the welcome matt—how cliché; first place someone would look if they want to get inside. I'd expect better from the Sherriff's house—tut, tut." Damon clicked his tongue.

Mae gave Damon a strange look before turning to lock the door.

"Going somewhere special?" Damon inquired, in a drawling tone, as he followed her down the porch-steps.

"To the game." Mae muttered.

"With . . ."

Mae licked her lips. "You wouldn't know them." As the two of them reached the bottom of the drive, Mae glanced at Damon, giving him a shy nod. "Bye Damon." and she turned to leave.

Damon didn't call after nor did he follow her any further, and when Mae glanced over her shoulder a few feet down the street, she spotted Damon had in-fact disappeared. She shook it off and continued on her way to Mystic Falls High School. When Mae arrived at the school ten minutes later, the sky was now dark and the remaining light in the horizon had vanished. Streetlamps were the only source of light as Mae wondered onto the campus. Luckily the campus wasn't deserted; people were everywhere—laughing, chatting, screaming, and running excitedly. Like she had planned, she followed the hoards of people to the fields which, consequentially led her to where the bonfire was at.

It didn't take long for Ethan, Emilia and Cassie to spot her. It was Ethan who called her over. "Mae—over here!" Across the bonfire, the three of them were huddled together. Mae was relieved to see Emilia and Cassie were dressed similarly to her. "Hey!" Ethan greeted her cheerfully. "Glad you could come." Even in the darkness, his pearly white teeth seemed to gleam. Emilia and Cassie stood either side of him; Emilia watching Mae timidly and Cassie (who seemed exceptionally pretty this evening) was looking around her, ignoring or completely oblivious to Mae's presence.

"Hi Mae." Emilia said, sweetly. "You look nice."

Mae was glad it was dark because she was already blushing. "Thanks, so do you."

"Cassie?" Ethan nudged his friend with his elbow.

Cassie seemed to snap out of whatever reverie she was in. She pulled her gaze from the fire and looked at Ethan, and then finally Mae. "Oh, hey Fell."

Mae gave her a small wave. "Hey Cassie."

The four of them made small talk for several minutes until Tanner—the coach of MFHS' football team—captured their attention for a pre-game speech. The energy around the bonfire tonight seemed to be high and the air was buzzing with excitement; people cheered loudly and hollered to the football team. Over the bonfire, Mae spotted Caroline and Bonnie—both donned in their cheer outfits—squealing, cheering and shaking their pom-poms. After some point towards the end of Tanner's speech, a fight broke out around the cars which gained a small crowd.

"It's Lockwood and Gilbert." Ethan acknowledged, craning his neck over the sea of people. Unlike his sister, who was small like Mae, Ethan was significantly tall and could see over the crowds of people effortlessly.

Cassie rolled her eyes and snorted. "Fighting over Donovan's junkie sister, I presume." Cassie bitterly said, with the roll of her eyes, appearing to have little taste for the fight that had broken out. She grabbed Ethan's sleeve and tugged him in a direction opposite to where the fight was escalating. "C'mon, I'm hungry—let's get a hotdog."

Leaving the fight behind them, the four of them all bought themselves a hotdog and a soda each before heading over to the bleachers to bag themselves a good seat. People were already sitting on the bleachers by the time they had reached the front of the hotdog stall and bought their food/drinks. On the bleachers, they climbed their way to the highest point and sat themselves down. Ethan and Cassie had already immersed themselves into football talk that was quickly becoming heated as they argued over tactics. Meanwhile Emilia and Mae sat side-by-side next to the squawking friends, quietly eating their hotdogs, moving between watching their argument and looking over the pitch.

"They're like this all the time." Emilia quietly commented. Mae glanced at Emilia, who seemed to be giving her a look that was half-sheepish and half-apologetic. "They calm down eventually." Mae peered at the two friends through her lashes; Cassie had stomped her foot on the ground loudly and was hissing at Ethan through gritted teeth and fiery eyes. If Mae didn't find Cassie so frightening, then she probably would have found the situation amusing. "Are you into football?" Emilia asked, politely, pulling Mae's gaze away. Mae shook her head and gave her a sheepish smile. "Me neither." Emilia admitted breathlessly. "They don't know that though." Emilia nodded her head in Cassie and Ethan's direction. "They think I like it, but I don't really."

Mae cocked her head in confusion. "Why?"

Emilia shrugged. "I guess I don't like to disrupt their fun. If they realised I didn't really like football, they wouldn't be doing this." Mae looked at the two friends, thinking that it hardly looked like fun. Emilia seemed to read her thoughts on her face, for she giggled quietly and said: "They may look like they're about to rip each other's hair out but they enjoy it really. It's just the way their friendship is."

Mae thought it was a strange friendship, but who was she to judge? She didn't exactly have any friends herself.

As it turns out, the Timberwolves won the game—to Cassie's dismay, meaning she now owed Ethan a meal at the grill (paid for by her). The four of them descended down the bleacher steps and followed the crowd out of the pitch. Ethan offered Mae a ride, which she graciously accepted. "My truck's in the parking lot behind the locker rooms." Ethan nodded in the direction of where the football locker rooms were located. Mae nodded and the four of them made their way to the parking lot, only to be stopped by flashing lights, sirens and barriers.

"What the Hell?" Ethan breathed as they came to a stop at the barriers.

"What's happened?" Emilia murmured worriedly, craning her neck left-to-right in attempt to see what has happened.

Beside her Cassie shrugged casually. "Maybe Lockwood finished Gilbert off."

Ethan and Emilia both shot Cassie a disapproving glare, to which Cassie ignored.

Suddenly Liz came along, spotting Mae in the crowds. "Mae—what are you doing here? You need to go home." She said, in an urgent tone of voice.

"We were . . . Ethan was going to take us home . . ."

Ethan stepped forward. "Sherriff—my truck is over there . . ."—Ethan pointed to the truck in the parking lot, beyond the barriers—". . . Could we get passed?"

Liz shook her head. "This is a crime scene. We can't let anyone beyond the perimeters."

"A crime scene?" Cassie and Mae repeated in sync, the two of them glancing at each other when they realised what they had done, before looking back at Liz suspiciously.

Liz sighed and looked Mae directly in the eye. "Your history teacher, Mr. Tanner, is dead."

**LONG chapter. Hope it makes up for the short chapter before.**

**Thank you all so much for the reviews, favourites & follows - or just even reading the story so far. It means a lot & I will love to hear your thoughts and opinions :)**

**I hope I'm making the TVD & OC characters believable. Damon is my hardest character to write, as of yet.**

**If you're interested in seeing how I see my OC characters, then go onto my profile and look at the links. I see Mae as Emma Watson; Cassie as Lily Collins; Ethan as Taylor Lautner; Emilia as Selena Gomez; and Grace as Victoria Justice.**

**P.S if you guys have time check out the stories 'Living in Memories' by rainflowerxx and 'It Just Can't Be' by sainlyinsain - they are my two favourite TVD/OC stories at the current moment in time :) They deserve to be noticed!  
**


	4. Secrets

_September 12__th__ 2009_

When Mae awoke on Saturday morning, the Forbes household was eerily silent for a weekend. Mae had stumbled through the house, past midnight, last night and headed straight for her bed. She had fallen asleep within seconds after her head touched the pillow from sheer exhaustion. After discovering the death of Mr Tanner, and being denied access to Ethan's truck, Mr Sulez—Ethan and Emilia's father—had driven to the school to pick them up. After being awkwardly dropped off by the kind man, Mae mentally noted that she wouldn't have been in that situation if she had a car for herself. Mr Tanner's face had popped up in her dreams in numerous occasions last night, and when Mae awoke, she still struggled to grasp the fact her history teacher was truly dead.

Neither Liz nor Caroline were around when Mae entered the kitchen—Liz off at work, presumably, and Caroline's whereabouts unknown. As Mae carried about her usual routine upon entering the kitchen, she switched on the TV and listened to the news as she made her breakfast, as a reason to drown out the silence that filled the house. Mae half-listened to the news, but it wasn't until a women—Andie Starr, reporter of WPKW9 news—appeared on screen in front of Mystic Falls High School that Mae's attention was grasped.

She was reporting information on the animal that killed Tanner. A mountain lion, Liz had said. But as Mae watched Andie Star report the news of this deadly mountain lion, Mae couldn't deny the feeling of doubt in her mind. Mae wasn't one to doubt her aunt before—she believed everything Liz usually told her, but there was something different about this case. Perhaps it was because Mae _knew _this victim that it was having such an affect; she just _couldn't_ imagine Mr Tanner being attacked, and killed, by just an animal. Mae sighed. It just seemed . . . _odd._

Nonetheless Mae carried about her day as if normal. She assumed once Monday rolled around, school would all be talking about the events of last night and Tanner's death, but until then Mae would cast the death of her history teacher out of her mind. At eleven o'clock, Mae left the Forbes house in her Mystic Grill uniform, and headed to the popular hangout in the town's square. When she arrived at the grill, which was full—even at this time of day—Rob greeted her from behind the bar and sent her off to serve tables. Mae surfed around restaurant, taking orders, serving orders and cleaning up after the customers. At noon, Mae was granted a twenty-minute break, in which she had a quick bite to eat and carried about serving tables.

At some point in the afternoon, Mae spotted Grace Gilbert across the room, in one of the booths. Mae didn't remember seeing Grace there before, but she also didn't see her come in either. She was alone, sitting in the darkest corner of the booth, looking down-cast and troubled. As Mae approached the sixteen year old, she noticed the dark circles under her eyes and the paleness of her skin. It didn't look like she had slept a wink last night, and Mae doubted it had anything to do with the sudden death of Mr Tanner. She felt a rush of sympathy for the girl and carefully stopped at her side. Grace didn't notice her presence at first, until Mae cleared her throat. Her head snapped up and as recognition settled in, fear followed. Her pretty brown eyes widened significantly and panic seemed to etch across her features.

"Can I get you anything?" Mae tried to smile at the girl reassuringly, but the smile seemed to come out as a nervous grimace.

Grace shook her head vigorously and wordlessly, looking as if she was about to puke at any minute.

Mae had to say or do something, to lessen this girl's worry. Mae opened her mouth to speak but before a word even came out her name was called across the room. She looked around and spotted Ethan, Cassie and Emilia standing at the threshold. Ethan was the one who called her name across the grill; when she looked straight at them, he flashed a bright, white grin and waved his hand. Mae raised a hand, waved back gingerly, and signalled with a finger that she would be there with them after a minute. Ethan nodded and ushered his friend and sister to a booth across the room. Mae turned back to Grace who seemed to be watching the interaction shakily.

"Grace . . ."—Mae started.

Grace suddenly shot up from her booth and clamping a hand to her mouth. Mae knew what was coming—she was about to puke. Mae stepped aside and let Grace escape. Though, instead of heading in the direction of the toilets like Mae half expected her to, she ran straight out of the door and out of sight. Mae sighed, knowing there was no way she could follow after her—not when Rob was manning the bar today. Mae dejectedly headed over to where Ethan, Cassie and Emilia were, chatting casually to one another. Ethan was the first to spot her approach and smiled.

"Hey Mae." Ethan grinned at her friendly. "What was that between you and Grace Gilbert?" Ethan nodded with a head towards the door, acknowledging that they had seen what had happened between the two of them.

"It was nothing." Mae said quickly.

Cassie quirked a brow at her, which she usually did when she didn't believe what she was hearing. "Really? It didn't look like nothing. It looked like she was about to barf and run from what you were saying to her."

Mae felt a involuntary flare of irritation. "Well it_ was_ nothing."

Cassie opened her mouth to retaliate, but Ethan interrupted with a: "Let it go, Cassie." In a tired, warning tone. Obviously Cassie was one who didn't easily let something drop, but when Ethan said this, she seemed to let it go with a reluctant huff. She slouched back in her booth and crossed her arms over her chest, staring at Mae calculatingly.

Mae jittered uncomfortably where she stood, and chose to change the subject quickly before anymore questions were asked. She turned to Ethan and asked: "D-Did you get your truck back?" she hastily asked.

Ethan sighed. "Eventually—an hour ago." Ethan rolled his eyes. Ethan went onto to describing how the police station only let him access his truck an hour ago, meaning he couldn't travel to Grove Hill—the neighbouring town—where he worked in his uncle's mechanics.

Emilia looked troubled by the time Ethan had finished when her brother asked her what's wrong, Emilia said: "I can't believe Mr Tanner's dead." Ethan shook his head in sorrow agreement. "What's going to happen to history class now he's gone? And the football team?" Emilia looked around the group with wide, concerned dark brown eyes.

Cassie snorted. "Emilia, you're asking the wrong kind of questions." Cassie pointed out matter-of-factly. "You should be asking _how _Tanner died."

Emilia looked at Cassie, confused. "We know, though. They said it was an animal attack."

"Yeah—they _said_. But was it really though?"

Ethan looked at Cassie dumbfounded. "What are you trying to say, Cassie? That Tanner was murdered?"

Cassie shrugged in a nonchalant manner. "Maybe." Cassie retorted casually. "Maybe the Sherriff's niece might know a thing or two about Tanner's death." Cassie turned her eyes on Mae once more.

"M-My aunt hasn't told me anything." Mae stuttered.

"_Really_?"

"Yes!" Mae spluttered truthfully.

Ethan narrowed his eyes. "What are you playing at Cassie?"

Cassie shrugged nonchalantly again and looked back at Mae. "I'll have a burger and fries please with a glass of cherry soda."

Mae opened and closed her mouth, thinking of what she could possibly reply to that, but settled with a curt nod before looking expectantly at Emilia and Ethan. Ethan pulled his eyes away from Cassie with a sigh and asked for the same. Emilia also ordered the same, but with a strawberry milkshake instead of cherry soda. Mae pulled out her notepad, jotted it down, and muttered that she would be right back with their orders before walking away. Ethan tried to call her back, but Mae was already halfway across the room, in the direction of the kitchens. Rob gave her a curious look as she passed, obviously noticing the twisted look on her face, but said nothing to her.

As she ordered the food, Erin—one of the waitresses—arrived for her shift. Luckily Erin was the one who took the food to Ethan, Emilia and Cassie while Mae took a five minute break out back. When Mae returned from her five-minute break, Rob placed her behind the bar whilst he settled business out back. Mae was secretly happy with the change of work, feeling a little put-out by how Cassie had been behaving with her. For the hour that Mae spent behind the bar, Mae was kept busy with customers ordering from the bar, so much so that Mae didn't have the chance to look over in Ethan, Emilia and Cassie's direction. But by the end of that hour spent behind the bar, Mae couldn't avoid them for much longer, when Ethan approached the bar after their meal.

"Hey," Ethan declared his presence from behind the bar. Mae looked up from the glass she was wiping down. "We're off now,"—Ethan gestured with his head to behind him, where Cassie and Emilia were lingering at the threshold—"I just wanted to say sorry for the way Cassie behaved before. Sometimes she doesn't realise that what she's saying is rude." Mae nodded softly, silently accepting his apology (despite the apology coming from the wrong mouth). "Are you going to the Homecoming dance this Friday?" Ethan suddenly asked, out of the blue.

Mae blinked. Homecoming. She hadn't thought about Homecoming once since the beginning of school. It had been advertised all over school though, with flyers and posters. People had also been talking about it here and there—mostly the girls. Mae never spared it any more than a glance, since she never really participated in school dances, and had no mind to either. "Erm, no—probably not." Mae cleared her throat. "Will it even be on?" Mae then asked, doubtfully, referring to the death of Tanner disrupting the homecoming dance.

Ethan shrugged his shoulders. "Who knows. We never usually go to it anyway,"—Ethan referred to Cassie (who was looking more impatient by the minute) and Emilia—"We usually do a horror movie marathon at my house. Why don't you come along?"

Mae took this moment to look over Ethan's shoulder to look at Cassie, who appeared to be glaring impatiently in their direction. "Look, Ethan," Mae started uncomfortably, putting the glass away. "I appreciate everything you're doing, but I really don't think that's for the best." Ethan shot her a confused look that Mae felt obliged to collaborate on. Mae licked her lips and awkwardly winced. "I-I . . . have this feeling that Cassie doesn't exactly want me around and . . . I don't want to be somewhere I'm not wanted."

"What?" Ethan exclaimed, baffled. Mae nodded behind him. Ethan snapped his head around and took in the glaring Cassie across the room. "No—what?" Ethan stumbled. "Cassie doesn't hate you. She was the one who introduced you to us." Ethan shook his head. "Cassie . . . well, if you haven't noticed already, is a little on the bipolar side."—Mae had _definitely _noticed that already—"She's had a bad childhood that has lead to trust issues. When it comes to new people—she struggles. But with time, she learns to trust. Right now, she's hesitant. Give her time and she'll stop acting this way." Mae chewed thoughtfully on her lip. "I promise you that Cassie likes you." Ethan finished surely. Mae continued to bite her lip. "Think about Friday and get back to me when you've decided."

Mae sighed inwardly and nodded.

Ethan began to step backwards. "Alright. See you Monday, Mae."

"Bye." Mae breathlessly replied.

Ethan gave her a wave and walked off to join Cassie and Emilia. Erin, who was getting something from behind the bar, turned to Mae with an impish smile on her lips. "He's cute." She said, wiggling her eyebrows at her. "Is he your boyfriend?"

Mae stuttered an embarrassed "N-No", blushing furiously as she did, and went to serve a customer.

_September 13__th__ 2009_

The next day begun with a call from Rob; apparently there had been some mix-up on the work schedules which meant that they were overstaffed and Mae wasn't needed today. Not expecting this sudden change in her Sunday, Mae spent most of the morning, loitering around the house and bored. At noon she had lunch in the backyard, taking advantage of the bright sunny day Sunday turned into, and then started her afternoon by finishing up the small bits of homework she had to do. Though found herself at a crossroad when she came round to her untouched History homework. After moments of contemplation, she put the homework away and then went on a walk through the neighbourhood when she found herself stumped for something to do.

The neighbourhood was quiet this Sunday afternoon. As she walked down the sidewalks of each street, the occasional runner or dog-walker was all to be seen. The Forbes household was just as quiet as the streets around them; Liz was, like usual these days, at work and Caroline (as it turns out) was spending the weekend with Uncle Bill in Georgia. Mae was already anticipating another lonely night in the Forbes household, much like her evening last night. Last night Mae had spent the evening watching re-runs of Gilmore Girls and eating leftovers from the fridge and she assumed this evening would turn out much similar.

After four minutes of walking, Mae reached Maple Street. Mae knew Maple Street very well—it was, after all, where her old home had been. All that was left of 2110 Maple Street was burnt ruins, barred fences and a rusted 'Keep Out' sign. Mae paused at the top of the street, feeling like her entire body had reached an invisible barrier. For the first time in three years, Mae was looking at her old street for the first time. Old memories—good and bad—were threatening to remerge from the mental tomb she had buried them in the back of her mind. Her head told her to walk away, but a mental voice in the back of her mind told her to carry on. Mae took two steps and suddenly she was walking down her old street of the first time in three years.

2110 Maple Street was the one before the last house on the street. Before the night of the fire, the house had been one of the most beautiful houses along the street. It was just the same as all the other houses in the street—the Georgian style house with a wrap-around porch, white walls, and windows with shutters on them. Mae's mother used to spend most of her days tending to the garden (gardening was her passion); she used to buy the staple gardening flowers and shrubs to the most exotic, wild flowers to plant into the garden. The left half of the house used to be crawling with honeysuckle and the shutters were painted a duck-egg blue that remains Mae's favourite colour to this day. As Mae approached her old house, the vivid smell that the yard used to give off filled her brain. So fresh, so floral. Mae missed that smell. But as she reached the house, she wasn't met with that familiar smell of her mother's well-groomed garden. Through the metal fence that barred the house from entry, Mae could see her mother's garden had lost its beauty and was now an overgrown jungle of wilderness. What was left of the house was barely see-able through the plants that had grown up it. The entire right half of the building was missing—the right half of the house had been where her parents and brother slept.

Mae still had nightmares of the night they died. They weren't quite as frequent as they used to be, but they came every few months as a wicked reminder of the worst night of her life.

When looking at her old home (or at least, what was left of it), became too much, Mae had to walk away. Swallowing back the emotions in the back of her throat, and pushing back the memories threatening to remerge, she put her head down and carried along the walkway of Maple Street. She walked for several yards when suddenly something, or someone, crashed into her from her side that almost sent her flying to the ground. Mae stumbled and quickly re-glanced herself by reaching out to grasp the arm of the person she had collided with. She looked up and looked at the person. It was Jeremy Gilbert. And behind him, in the background, was 2104 Maple Street; Mae had reached the Gilbert residence, presumably.

"Sorry." Jeremy grumbled, frowning, and yanked his arm out of her grasp before storming away—down the street in the direction that Mae had come from.

Mae watched him go momentarily before turning to look at the Gilbert residence and suddenly Grace popped to mind. Nibbling her bottom lip, Mae lingered on her spot at the bottom of their drive, before biting the bullet and walking up to the porch. By the time she had reached the front door and rung the doorbell, panic settled in and she was second-guessing her rash decision. Her stomach rolled and flipped when the door opened and Jenna Sommers—the aunt of the Gilbert siblings appeared on the other side of the door. She looked flustered, her strawberry blonde hair array. She then looked confused when she spotted Mae standing there.

"Mae?" she asked, confused.

Mae felt her cheeks grow warmer and she struggled for something to say. "I . . . I wondered whether Grace was here."

Jenna blinked, her confusion blending into shock. "Grace?" she repeated, looking at Mae like she had made some sort of mistake, which was valid because Mae had never been associated with Grace before now. Mae nodded slowly and swallowed. Jenna nodded. "OK. Come in—I'll call her down." And then Jenna stepped aside, letting Mae through the door.

Mae gave the 30-something year old woman a weak smile and walked through the door, into the Gilbert household foyer. Mae glanced around quickly, believing this was the first time she had stepped inside the Gilbert household since she was 4 years old. Considering she was 4 years old, and 4 years old don't exactly take in the interior of houses, everything looked new to Mae but there was a familiarity there in the layout. Mae remembered stepped through the same front foor she had just stepped through in 1998 for Elena's 4th birthday party.

Jenna called Grace down from the bottom of the staircase and Mae listened to a door open and close followed by Grace's descent down the staircase. Moments later, a still pale-faced Grace appeared on the staircase. She looked at Jenna and then she looked at Mae. Her body stopped-short and her face turned stiff. "You have a visitor." Jenna looked around at Mae and then back at Grace, obviously still trying to wrap her head around the fact Mae was hear to see Grace. When Grace failed to say anything, Jenna turned around to Mae and smiled friendly. "Would you like something to drink Mae?"

Mae shook her head and cleared her throat. "No thank you, Miss Sommers."

"Jenna, please." Jenna quickly amended with a smile. "Well, I'll be in the kitchen working if you need anything." Jenna glanced between them once more and then headed to the kitchen.

Once Jenna was out of sight, there was a short moment of awkwardness between them and then Mae chose to broke it: "Grace . . ."—she started.

"Not here." Grace interrupted, speaking to her for the first time. Grace glanced towards where Jenna had disappeared, her hand gripping the staircase banister tightly. "Let's go to my room."

Mae licked her lips and nodded in agreement. Grace turned on the stairs and began to retreat back up the stairs towards her room. Mae gingerly followed quietly. Nothing was said between them as they advanced up the staircase. But when they reached the door leading to Grace's bedroom, a door opened from across the hallway and a voice that was neither Grace nor Mae's sounded from behind them. "Grace? Mae?" Elena Gilbert had appeared outside her bedroom, looking at Mae in a similar way that Jenna had been looking at her. "What are you doing here?"

Mae froze. "Urr . . ."

"Tutoring." Grace suddenly said, out of the blue. "Mae's tutoring me for Math. The teachers at school set it up." Her lie came out as a stammer, but wasn't unbelievable—Mae was good at Math and teachers had approached her numerous of times to get her to tutor students from younger years.

Elena looked between them. "Oh." She said, seemingly accepting the lie. Elena focused her eyes on Mae. "How's your ankle Mae?"

Mae shuffled on her feet. "Fine." She replied. "Back to normal."

Elena nodded and smiled at the two of them. "I'll leave you two to it—Stefan will be here soon to take me to the grill. Will you be coming with us Grace?" Grace shook her head and for a spilt second Elena looked disappointed, but she quickly hid it with a smile that was tighter and less genuine than the one before. "Bye Mae." Elena waved Mae off, which Mae returned, and Grace led Mae into her room, closing the door shut behind her once Mae had entered the room.

And then silence had returned. Mae stepped into the room, feeling completely out place in the lilac-walled room. Grace walked passed her and placed herself down her bed, hands clasped on her lap and staring anywhere but at Mae. "So what—is trying to get me to reveal my . . . _secret _in a crowded corridor at school or the grill not good enough for you, so you're doing it here, in the same house as my family?" Grace broke the silence, her voice a mere whisper and toneless. She looked empty and cold.

"W-What?" Mae spluttered without thinking. "No!"

Grace looked up, but she didn't look her in the eye—looking at a spot somewhere over her shoulder. "Are you here to blackmail me or something then?"

"No!" Mae said, slightly louder than intended. Mae looked over her shoulder, to look at the door, waiting to see the door open and Elena burst through. But nothing happened. Mae turned back to Grace, sighing and then said in a slightly lighter—quieter—tone of voice. "I-I'm not here to _an-anything _like that." Mae stuttered and Grace failed to show any facial response to what she had said. Instead, began to stare at her hands, blankly. Mae inhaled deeply and after a few moments of more silence, Mae continued: "I came here . . . I came here to tell you what I've been trying to tell you in the corridor and in the grill—that . . . that your _secret_ is safe with me."

Grace snapped her head up. "What?"

Mae exhaled. "I'm not going to say anything to _any-anybody_."

"Why?" Grace demanded sceptically. Mae looked at her confused. "You could tell everyone in the whole school—or even the whole town!"

Mae furrowed her eyebrows. "Why would I do that?" Mae replied. "I don't _need_ or remotely _want _to tell the whole school or town." Mae insisted. "It's your secret to tell, not _mine_." Mae's eyes flickered to Grace's stomach.

Grace, seeing this, moved her hand down to her stomach involuntarily. She looked sideways and blinked rapidly when tears began to swell up. "In a few months time I won't need to tell anyone—_this_ will do that for me." Grace nodded her head towards the stomach she still held. Her voice was shaky, full of fear and panic. "And everyone's going to _hate_ me." A tear trickled down her cheek.

"Y-You don't know that." Mae murmured, taking a small step forward.

Grace shook her head and bit down on her lip. "That's what usually happens, isn't it? When you . . . when you . . ." Grace inhaled a gasping breath. "P-people watch you walk down the hallway; they move out way and look at you like you're a _fr-freak._"—Grace spat the word out—"Just because . . . just because you made _one _mistake—_one_, measly, naïve mistake." Grace sighed and stared blankly at the photo on her nightstand. Mae noticed the photo in the white photo-frame was a picture of the Gilberts—_all_ the Gilberts. "How can one mistake change the rest of your life?"

"You don't have to go through with it if you don't want to."

Grace snapped her eyes to hers. Apparently she understands what exactly Mae was insinuating. "I-I can't." Grace stammered. "I-I can't do that . . . I just c-can't." Grace suddenly dropped her face into her hands. "Oh God, how am I going to tell them all?" and Grace began to cry.

Mae slowly walked forward and placed herself down on the bed beside the sixteen-year-old, placing a careful arm around her shoulder. Considering Grace didn't pull away from her, she guessed that she didn't mind it or didn't notice. "It's going to be fine."

A teary, red-nosed Grace looked up from her hands. "H-How can you possibly know that?"

Mae gave her a weak smile and then said in the most confident voice she could muster: "Because your family _love _you."

_September 14__th__ 2009_

After visiting Grace Gilbert yesterday, the two teens had swapped numbers. Mae had offered that, if Grace ever needed someone to talk to, she could call or text her. Grace wasn't the only one who was shocked by the offer—Mae _too_ had been shocked that she even said it. As Mae woke up the next morning, she realised that—somehow—in these past week alone Mae was changing. Sure, she still hated an ounce of attention centred towards her, and she still felt nervous around people, but she felt . . . different. She felt like a different kind of herself that she couldn't quite explain. She thought this over as she dressed for the beginning of her second week back at high school.

When she arrived at Mystic Falls High, the whole school was—like she had anticipated—was alive with talk about the death of Tanner. His funereal had happened yesterday but the headmaster had arranged an assembly this morning where they paid respect for the former History teacher. Mae sat with the rest of the school in the auditorium, paying respect to Tanner's death, where the headmaster announced at the end that History lessons will be cancelled for the rest of the week and, out of honour, the Homecoming dance would be rearranged for the 10th of October. Most of the girls complained about the rearrangement for the rest of the day, but were glad at least they had longer to (Mae quotes) "_the perfect dress"._ Caroline was especially happy the dance was being rearranged to that day, since the 10th was the day of her birthday, and would give her more reason to be the centre of attention.

When lunch rolled around, Mae headed to the library, like always and was shocked to find her usual table at the back was already occupied by none other than Ethan, Emilia and Cassie. "Hey," Ethan announced happily as Mae appeared. "We thought we'd join you for lunch—is that OK?"

Mae flushed and nodded. "S-Sure."

Lunch with Ethan, Emilia and Cassie actually turned out to be better than Mae ever would have thought. And much to her surprise, Cassie was being civil with her—though Mae assumed that Ethan must have talked to her—but nonetheless was grateful for it because by the end of lunch Mae was feeling much more comfortable in her presence. They talked about the assembly this morning and the changes the headmaster had announced. Apparently Ethan and Emilia had both had History this morning which they had just spent as a free study period. Cassie had already decided that she would leave school early instead of sticking around to register in History class before going off to spend the last hour of the day in the library.

Cassie's mother was the owner of Mainline Coffee—the coffee joint in town that Caroline frequently visited. Cassie sometimes helped out there, when her mother needed it, thus she was going to head straight there when History class usually is.

Sooner or later the discussion of Homecoming had popped up. Even though Homecoming had been rearranged to another date, they had decided to go ahead with the annual horror movie marathon anyway. Mae listened to them arrange what movies they would watch (Ethan was persistent upon watching _The Ring_ which Emilia argued was "too scary" for her to watch and Cassie argued was "embarrassingly bad"). When they moved onto arranging times on when to meet, Mae was suddenly brought into the conversation.

"Is 5 OK with you Fell?" Cassie suddenly turned to Mae.

Mae blinked in shock. "Y-Yeah, I-I think so."

"Good." Cassie firmly said. "I'll pick you up on my way to theirs. I drive past your house anyway."

Mae's mouth fell into an 'o'. "O-OK."

Cassie looked at her then nodded sternly. Beside her, Ethan was smiling happily. "OK."

**So this chapter isn't following any episode. It's just something I wrote. I don't know what you thought of it, but I felt like—considering I'm not totally following the episode dialogue anyway—it wouldn't matter too much. **

**What are you thinking of the story so far? Are you still interested 4 chapters in? I really hope so!**

**Thank you once again for all the kind reviews. **

**The matter of Mae's love interest has popped up a few times in the reviews and I didn't plan on talking about it, because truthfully I haven't really made a choice on whom to place Mae with. Right now, this story is concentrating on Mae finding her way through the Mystic Falls happenings. She'll have friendships with the Mystic Falls characters and a few dates but that's all that's planned for now. If you have any ideas on whom you'd like to see Mae with, let me know :)**

**And who do you think the father of Grace's baby is? Clue: you know him from the show!**


	5. Grace

_September 15__th__ 2009_

Light flooded through the cracks of her purple curtains signalling the dawn of day. Grace Gilbert lay on her side, facing the window, watching as the light seeped deeper and deeper into her room. This was how she had remained for the past four hours, after being abruptly awoken by a bad dream—or more like a bad memory. She was remembering the night her parents died. She, like her sister, had been in the car the night it drove off the bridge. Somehow, Elena and Grace had managed to survive, and her parents hadn't. Five months on and Grace had no recognition to how she had even survived the crash over Wickery Bridge. All she remembered was darkness kicking in as the breath in her lungs began to fill with water.

Grace slowly blinked, her long dark-brown lashes brushing against her high cheek-bones. And when her eyes reopened, they were filled with sudden overwhelming emotions. What would they think of her now? Was the thought that sent the rush of overwhelming emotions to appear. What would they think of her now? Grace inhaled a shuddering breath. Would they be angry like any other parents discovering their teenage daughter was pregnant? Of course they would. Her parents wanted big things to happen to her—ever since she was little Grace, and her parents, had had it in their head that she would follow in her father's footsteps—to be a doctor. Now being a doctor was completely out of the equation—not now there's a baby on the way.

Grace's hand involuntarily moved down to rest her hand over her stomach. Even if Grace somehow managed to graduate from high school, and _somehow_ gets accepted into a medicine school, how would she cope with a 2-3 year old toddler to look after on the side? And Grace doubted the father would be just as much willing to give up college for her to go after her dreams. Grace's face scrunched up at the thought of the father. 5 days after confirmation of her pregnancy, Grace still hasn't gotten round to telling the father of the baby; she hadn't even begun to _think _about telling the father. But as the days went on, the more Grace saw him around school, the more Grace realised that she was putting off the inevitable. She had to tell him sometime, but she feared what the outcome will be.

_Perhaps I could send him an e-mail_, Grace thought with dry humour, rolling onto her back—staring blankly up at the ceiling.

Once she told the father, she would have to tell her family, and by then the whole school would know—and that was the moment Grace dreaded the most. Once everyone knew, there was no room of denial.

There were times that Grace would deny everything in the past five days (and especially before she had even taken the tests), but when she would uproot the multiple used pregnancy sticks from the back of her sock draw, she would be yet again reminded of the truth. She really was pregnant at sixteen. Two months pregnant, she could only assume by the two periods she has missed, which meant she conceived this baby only three months after her parents' death. She belonged on the TV show _Sixteen and Pregnant_ or something.

Grace was brought out of her reverie by the sound of two gentle knocks on her bedroom door. Grace quickly glanced at the clock on her bedside table and saw that it was 7am. And true to tradition—since the beginning to school—the door cracked open and Elena's door popped in. Elena had taken to coming into her bedroom, every morning at 7, to wake her up like their Mom used to. She knew Elena only had kind intentions—she was worried sister is all—but Grace never seemed to find herself in the mood for Elena's pestering. Elena thought things were different between the two of them because of the night their parents died—when really, the real reason was because Grace was hiding something of her own. Something she didn't want Elena to know (but she would know eventually).

Elena had always been the '_good_' sister or never seemed to be able to do no wrong. Grace looked up to her and always tried to do as best as her sister. She hated to see the disappointment shining through Elena's face when she realises what mistake Grace had made; and even worse—when she discovered who she made that mistake _with_.

"Morning," Elena whispered—obviously trying not to make a bold statement. She was still in her pjs, but her make-up and hair was done. "The bathroom's free." Grace nodded silently and turned her attention to de-tangling herself from the sheets and quilts that covered her. "Hey," Elena then pulled her attention back. Grace glanced up at her. "Do you want a lift?" Grace shook her head quickly and Elena's disappointment seemed to come through. Grace looked away, before guilt could submerge, and moments later Elena left with a soft 'click' of the door. Grace sighed, wincing to herself, and spent a few good minutes trying to swallow back the emotions in the back of her throat.

After showering, Grace dressed herself in the usual attire and put her soft curls into a high ponytail, before leaving the bedroom make-up free. Downstairs, Jeremy rushed past Grace in the foyer as he headed for the door. Grace smiled at him tightly, which was returned a grunt from him. When the door banged shut, Grace ascended towards the kitchen; in the kitchen, Jenna eating a slice of toast as she poured coffee into a flask, while Elena sat at the bar-stool, drinking her own mug of coffee. Jenna looked up and smiled at Grace when she entered the kitchen. Like most of the time, she looked flustered and disorientated.

"Hello Grace. Coffee?"

Grace licked her lips and shook her head.

Jenna gave her a cocked brow. "Still keeping up this no-coffee diet?"

Elena looked up from her own coffee.

Grace merely shrugged and went to sit beside Elena. She felt Elena's gaze on her, but she didn't turn to meet her stare. Instead, she busied herself with pouring herself a bowl of cereal using the milk and cereal box already set out on the kitchen bar. Silence settled around the room, until Jenna became aware of the time. "I'm off!" she announced, suddenly, breaking the silence. She grabbed her flask of coffee and began to head out of the kitchen. "Do you girls need anything before I go? Lunch money? A lift maybe?" Jenna jiggled her car keys in her other hand.

Elena shook her head and was the first to speak: "Stefan's collecting me in . . ."—Elena looked down at her watch—". . . any minute now."

Jenna nodded and then looked straight at Grace. "Jessica's picking me up." Jess. Truth be told, Grace hasn't spoken to her once since her parents died. Grace would see her in class, but Jess seemed to have moved on with her life—she has a boyfriend now and a new group of friends. Grace could imagine how happy she is with her life; Jess always wanted a boyfriend. And because her boyfriend is one of the most popular guy's in school, she's even climbed up the social ladder since the beginning of sophomore year.

Her aunt nor sister didn't seem aware of her lie, for Jenna was too busy with getting the work, and by the time she had finished her sentence Elena's phone buzzed alerting her that Stefan was outside. Elena jumped from her seat almost immediately and soon the two girls had left, leaving Grace in a lonely house. She scoffed down the rest of her cereal ravenously and then began to get ready to leave.

When Grace arrived at school, out of breath and red-cheeked, the first person she spotted was Jess. She was sitting on one of the picnic tables on the plane of grass, curled up into her boyfriend's side and laughing with one of her new friends. Grace felt a sudden rush of sadness overcome her. Grace had come to the saddening realisation that she and Jess were no-longer friends anymore. Of course, she knew this realisation was coming, but it was hard to shake off the fact that Jess was no longer that best friend she would tell everything to anymore. There once was a time when—five months prior—they would tell each other everything. Grace craved those times; she craved to have someone to talk to about everything and anything, despite how stupid or serious it was, because right now—she really needed someone to talk to. She really needed a friend right now.

As Grace headed towards her locker, she thought of Mae. Not many people thought of Mae Fell. People pass her in the hallway and never seem to notice her. She was like a shadow that people saw from the corner of their eye, but never paid attention to. It had always been that way for as long as Grace has been at Mystic Falls High. Grace distinctly remembered both of their parents had been friends in their time. Her parents had attended their funeral three years ago. Mae now lived with her aunt—like Grace—and Elena's best friend, Caroline. Mae was also the only one, in the entire town (apart from herself), that knew she was pregnant. She was the last person she thought would first find out she was pregnant, but Grace was grateful that it was her and not some blabbermouth.

The words Mae parted with her on Sunday resurfaced to her mind. "_I-If you need anything, or just even someone to talk to . . . call or text me._"

Grace would most likely take up that offer.

Classes floated by and before long, lunch had arrived. Grace followed the crowd to the cafeteria where she joined the rapidly forming line. She stood by herself, half-listening to the conversations in front of her and behind her. As she waited in line, her eyes drifted around the cafeteria, a sudden lonely sensation coming over her. Everyone seemed to be gathered in groups or couples—no-one seemed to be alone like her. The room was alive with laughter and talk. Everyone had someone to talk to or laugh with but her. While Grace collected her lunch, she desperately tried to fight back the tears that were threatening to fall. She collected herself a pasta salad, a can of soda, and an apple before paying at the end. Then she headed straight for the picnic tables outside with her tray.

It wasn't long after she sat down that she was approached. "Grace," without even having to look up, she knew it was her sister who had approached her. But she looked up anyway; she was with Stefan, both of them holding trays. Elena looked concerned. "Why aren't you sitting with your friends?" Elena nodded to something behind her. Grace looked around and spotted Jess, with her boyfriend and new group of friends, together on a picnic table several feet away. Jess was completely oblivious to her presence and considering Grace made out that they were still friends, Grace found herself stuck in a web of lies. "You haven't fallen out have you?"

Grace mentally unfroze herself and looked back at Elena. "No," she said, as casual as she could. "I just didn't feel like sitting with them today."

Elena gave her a dumbfounded look. She shared a look with Stefan, then looked at Jess, and then back at Grace. "Do you mind if we sit with you?"

Grace shrugged. "Sure. If that's what you want." And then Elena and Stefan settled themselves down opposite her. It was then that Grace became aware of the look Stefan was giving her. The stare was strange . . . but something she had seen before; it was a stare she had seen before just five days ago on another face. _Mae_'s face. _Oh God, oh God, oh God. He knows. He _knows. Grace hadn't realised she had shot up from her seat until Elena asked her what was wrong. "N-Nothing. I-I just remembered that . . . that I . . . arranged to meet Mae in the library for a tutoring."

Elena blinked. ". . . tutoring?" Elena said slowly. Grace clamped her lips together, a familiar feeling beginning to rise from her stomach, and slowly up to her throat. "Are you sure you should go? You look like you're about to be . . ."—Elena was cut off when Grace suddenly slapped her hand to her mouth, her face turning a nasty shade of sickly-white. "Grace!" Elena called. Grace had turned on the spot and was running, at full force, to the girls' bathroom with a hand clamped to her mouth to stop the puke from spilling.

Stefan Salvatore knew.

_September 18__th__ 2009_

Like with when Mae discovered Grace's secret, Grace avoided Stefan like the plague. However, unlike Mae—who was extremely easy to avoid—, it was a lot harder to avoid Stefan. Stefan was, after all Elena's boyfriend, and spent more time at the Gilbert residence than Jeremy. Since their relationship began, Grace would often come home to see Stefan there with Elena. Wherever Elena was, Stefan followed, it appeared. Grace managed to persuade Jenna and Elena that she had come down with a bad case of the stomach bug. After the spectacle Elena had seen on Tuesday afternoon, it was easy to convince Elena that she had come down with something. Thus, for the past few days, Grace had managed to stay home—and more specifically, in her room. However by Friday—today—Grace had encountered another problem.

Jenna and Elena had come into her room this morning—before school/college—to see Grace wondering out of the bathroom, after experiencing another case of morning sickness. Jenna was holding a tray of food and Elena was carrying a hot water bottle for her stomach. Jenna and Elena's expressions of worry returned when they saw her pale-face. "You've been sick again?" Jenna asked, placing the tray down on her bed. She walked over to where Grace was and placed a hand on her forehead. "Maybe we should take you to the clinic."

Grace insides began to churn again. If Jenna took her to the hospital, then they found find out exactly why she's been sick. Grace had swallow down the bile this time as she began to talk to Jenna: "Its fine." Grace pushed Jenna's hand away from her forehead. "I'm feeling a lot better today—honest." Grace persisted.

"But you've just been sick." Elena interjected, pointedly.

Grace shook her head. "I'm _fine_." Technically she was fine; normally after she's sick in the morning, she begins to pick up again. The looks her aunt and sister were giving her told her that they didn't believe her one bit. "By tomorrow, I'll be back to normal—I can feel it." Grace continued.

Jenna sighed. "Fine, but if things don't pick up by Monday, you're going straight to the doctors." Jenna waggled a finger.

Grace sighed heavily in relief to herself then nodded. "Deal."

"I've got to head to work. You'll be having another day off I presume?" Jenna asked Grace, whom shrugged indifferently. Jenna gave her a pursed-lips look and then said: "I'll call the school." before leaving the room to make the call.

Elena remained in the room, watching as Grace pondered back to the bed, slipping under the covers and pulled the tray onto her lap with a sudden gust of hunger. "Are you _sure_ you're alright?" Elena asked, heading over to sit beside her on the bed. "You don't have to act tough, y'know. If something isn't right, you should go to the doctor's."

Grace couldn't help the irritation that sprung up inside her. "I'm fine Elena." She snapped, harsher than she had anticipated.

Elena flinched but Grace couldn't find it in her to apologise. "OK . . . well, I'll see you tonight." And then Elena silently left the room, closing the door with a soft 'click' behind her.

Grace glared down at her food with frustration. She _knew _Elena didn't deserve the way Grace snapped at her, but—really—she couldn't help herself. With everything going on, tensions are running high, and the fight to keep her secret hidden was on the verge of turning into a loosing battle. Grace gritted her teeth tightly. And then a sudden thought came through her head. What if Elena already knew? She thought with a sudden sense of panic. Stefan _was_ Elena's boyfriend—it was only logical that Stefan would tell his girlfriend . . . Grace gulped heavily and looked up at the door where Elena had disappeared from moments before.

_Had _Stefan told her? _Did_ Elena know she was pregnant?

**Just a short one-shot chapter from Grace's POV. I think more than anything this chapter was a 'filler' chapter, because I'm trying to have continuity with the dates—I don't want to keep having to do time-skips between each episode plotline. **

**Also, I have noticed on the TVD timeline on the TVD Wikia, that plotlines don't exactly match up to the dates—like the S1 Halloween episode for example. It's the end of September on the episode prior, and then the next episode is set on Halloween, despite only a day passing between the two episodes. So I'll probably have to fix that lol!**

**So yeah, this chapter was nothing special and I'm starting to think that I'm making this story boring. Am I making this story boring? If so, what exactly would you do to do to make the story less boring? **

**Anywho, next chapter will be back to Mae's POV, under the chapter plotline of 'Family Ties'. **

**As for the topic of love interests for Mae, a lot of you seem to like the idea of Mae being with an Original. I have no problem with pairing Mae with one of the Originals. I think she would make an interesting partner for Klaus, however all options are left open. I don't like the idea of deciding who Mae will be with before the story has even started! I'm trying to make this as realistic and unpredictable as possible. Not to judge (I have nothing wrong with these stories) but there are a lot of OC stories that become predictable. Which is good at times, because its nice to know whether the story will have a sad or happy ending before you go into it, but sometimes its also nice to keep the readers guessing!**

**I have a lot of ideas for this story that will keep the story different. I still want to have this story so that I'm not following the episodes word-for-word, so hopefully the ideas that I have will stick to that. **

**Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favourite'd & followed this story. It means a lot. I know this story isn't exactly popular, per say, but it still feels nice knowing people are taking the time to read it! It's just nice to know people are actually interested in my story :)**

**Until next time!**


	6. Family Ties

_September 18__th__ 2009_

That Friday evening—after a day at school—Mae had gone home and began getting ready for her movie night with Ethan, Cassie and Emilia. Like always Tumnus greeted her as she walked into the house and followed her into her bedroom where she settled down to do some homework before she started getting ready. She spent 25-30 minutes on homework before giving up (she had the whole of the weekend to finish it) and began to get ready. Liz was already aware that she was going to be spending the evening with friends this weekend, after Mae informed her this morning. Liz seemed pleasantly surprised when she heard that Mae was going to be spending the evening with friends (since Mae had never done something like this before), but there was something behind that pleasant surprise when she discovered _who _she would be spending her evening with.

"The Sulez's are a nice family." Liz had commented lightly earlier this morning. "Mr. Sulez works at a bank in Richmond—nice man."

Mae decided she wouldn't dress up as much as she did on the night of the football game, but decided nonetheless, that she would put in a little effort. Thus she decided on a blue sweater with some jeans and some nice studs in her ears. She re-braided her hair with a neater braid and put the slightest bit of lip-gloss on her lips. Mae never really bothered with make-up, considering it people didn't exactly pay any attention to her anyway. Caroline, on the other hand, wouldn't go a day without make-up.

Caroline arrived back home sometime around when Mae had tied a rubber band onto the end of her braid; and much to surprise, Caroline _called out to her._ A little shocked by this, Mae stumbled out of her bedroom and stumbled into the foyer where Caroline was waiting, but she wasn't alone. Damon Salvatore stood behind her—_surprise, surprise_—in the open doorway, wearing his signature grin, leather and black attire. He looked straight at her when she walked into the foyer and seemed to notice her effort in appearance. Caroline, however, looked at her with completely indifference. "I'm spending the night at Damon's—cover for me." She constructed in a not-so-polite, demanding tone.

Mae looked between Caroline and Damon. "I-I c-can't." she spluttered.

Caroline raised an eyebrow and dropped her hand from her hip. "What do you mean you _can't_?"

"I'm g-going out tonight."

"_Going _out?" she repeated, incredulously. Caroline looked at her like she had grown two heads. "With whom?"

Mae opened her mouth to speak when she was interrupted by a third voice.

"Knock, knock." A familiar, female voice said from behind Damon. The three of them turned their heads towards the voice (or in Damon's case his whole body) to spot Cassie standing on the porch. She looked different to usual—perhaps that had something to do with the fact her hair was, for the first time, up in a messy ponytail. She was wearing her usual leather jacket, with a brown top and black jean peants. "I haven't interrupted anything, have I?" Cassie said, smiling a sickly sweet smile at Caroline. Mae wondered whether Cassie had heard everything Caroline had said—which Mae considered was most likely.

Much to Mae's surprise, Caroline glared directly at Cassie. It was a glare that Mae thought was usually reserved for her and her alone. "Cassidy." Caroline returned the sickly sweet tone.

Cassie's lips twitched. "Bimbo." Cassie nodded to Caroline curtly. Caroline's glare turned into daggers. Completely ignoring Damon's presence, she turned to look at Mae. "You ready, Fell?"

Caroline sneered at Cassie and then Mae. "_You're_ spending the evening with_ her_?" she directed to Mae. "I should have known." She then smirked. "Enjoy your date with the lesbian." She then strode out of the house, barging past Cassie.

"Those who call out other people's sexualities are usually the one hiding their own sexuality secret." Cassie called after her in a sing-song, matter-of-fact tone voice. There was obvious hostility between Cassie and Caroline that Mae had no idea about until now. Cassie turned back to Mae and spotted the deeply amused look Damon was giving her. Cassie glared at the dark-haired man sharply. "What are you look at, Lassie?" Cassie spat. "Run along now, before your owner calls." Cassie shooed him with her hands. Damon's amused smirk turned into a furious glare that Mae had never seen before. Regardless, Damon left. "Who was that freak show?" Cassie questioned Mae with a nod after Damon.

Mae dryly chuckled and licked her lips. "His name is Damon."

"Yeah, well, he needs to get some contact lenses or something—those eyes are creepy as shit." Cassie grumbled. "You ready?"

Mae nodded. "I just have to put some shoes on." Mae stuck her feet into some boots and shrugged on her jacket. Then the two of them left the house, Mae locking up behind her, and headed out of the house—towards the car parked at the very end of the street. Caroline and Damon were no where to be seen. Instead of pondering how exactly they disappeared so quickly, Mae thought about the obvious hostility between Cassie and Caroline as they approached Cassie's faded red car. Inside the car, there were fluffy dices hanging from the mirror along with plastic hippy flowers on chains. This car was definitely not something she imagined Cassie driving whatsoever.

And when Cassie purred the engine to life, the stereo switched on and began to blast Taylor Swift. "For God sake Mom!" Cassie suddenly exclaimed, punching buttons on the stereo to shut the music off. "I really need my own car." Cassie grumbled as she began to speed down the street.

The drive to the Sulez residence was silent for the most part, until—near the end of the drive—Cassie spoke up. "How have you not been driven insane after living with that bimbo cousin of yours?"

Mae suppressed the urge to smile. It was nice hearing someone take such dislike to Caroline as she does. "Who says I haven't?" Mae blurted out a jokey reply, much to her own surprise.

And much to her further surprise, Cassie threw her a smirk. "Touché, Fell." Cassie drawled and then turned her attention back to the road. She then exhaled heavily. "Damn, I really hate that bitch." Cassie didn't seem in the least bit bothered that she was saying this to Caroline's cousin, but then again Mae didn't care that Cassie was saying this about her cousin. Mae didn't reply, but nodded silently to herself. "She made junior high _hell _for me . . . just because Tyler Lockwood said _I_ was prettier than her."

Mae could imagine hearing something like that, from one of the most popular boys in school, would be enough to make Caroline want to make someone's life hell.

Shortly afterwards they arrived at the Sulez residence on he other side of town. As Mae looked at their house, she figured that Mr. Sulez had to be working at a high ranking position at the bank to be able to afford this luxurious lifestyle. The house was large, made from brick, and had a large beautifully pruned front lawn. It was almost as beautiful as the lawn her mother pruned. And, sitting on the driveway, was a sleek, spotless, Mercedes—that looked like the latest model.

Cassie noticed Mae's awe. "Yeah, Mr. Sulez is pretty loaded," Cassie said nonchalantly. "He doesn't let Ethan or Emilia take it for granted. He and his wife make them work for the things they have." Cassie seemed to have respect for the Mr. and Mrs. Sulez. "They're like a second family to me,"—Cassie went on to admitting—"But don't mention I said that to Ethan"—she shot a glare at Mae—"Or else he'll never let it go."

The two girls walked up the pathway—Mae extremely careful not to step on the flowerbeds or perfectly green grass—and onto the porch. The door opened before they could knock, revealing a beautiful brunette woman. "Cassie!" the beautiful woman said with welcome arms and warm smiles. This woman reminded Mae of her mother, with the way she walked forward to embrace Cassie like she was a daughter of her own. "I saw you arrive. How are you, sweetheart? And your mother—how is she?"

"We're both fine thanks, Carmen." Cassie said with foreign kindness and a sweet smile.

Carmen then looked at Mae and her eyes widened. "And you must be Mae." Mae nervously pulled at the sleeves of her jacket. Carmen looked directly at her face, surveying every feature Mae had. There was a hint of sadness in her pale brown eyes. "You look just like your mother." Mae blinked. That wasn't something Mae heard often—people usually said she looked just like her father, since they had the same colour of eyes and hair. Mae's mother was blonde with beautiful green eyes.

"Th-Thank you, Mrs. Sulez."

Carmen smile became warmer. "Call me Carmen, sweetheart." She then stepped back and said: "Come in, girls; before you catch a cold." Even though it was still September and relatively warm, Cassie and Mae obliged, stepping into the grand foyer. "Here, let me take your jackets." Cassie and Mae shrugged out of their jackets and passed them to the beautiful brunette. "Ethan and Emilia are in the den—Cassie, I'm sure you can show Mae the way." Carmen smiled at Cassie warmly. "Have fun dears. I'll bring you up some snacks shortly."

Cassie led Mae up the slightly spiralling staircase to the second floor where Cassie walked to the very end of the hallway, opening the last door there was. The door opened up into—as Carmen called it—the den. The den was a moderately sized room with comfortably chairs, bean-bags, and a large flat-screen TV on one side of the wall. Ethan and Emilia were sitting on the ground, rifling through a large stack of DVDs. "We're here!" Cassie dramatically announced, with open arms. Ethan and Emilia snapped their heads up and grinned welcomingly.

"Hey! Just in time," Ethan said enthusiastically. "We're just going through the horror movies."

Cassie threw herself down onto a bean-bag nearest the two siblings. Mae gingerly padded across the soft carpet and placed herself down next to Emilia. Emilia smiled at her warmly, making Mae notice the vast resemblance between Emilia and Carmen. They had the same warm smile. "Anything but _The Ring_." Cassie exclaimed firmly.

Ethan, who obviously wanted to watch the film, gave her a glare. "We'll put it to a vote."

The first twenty minutes was spent picking out movies. Mae watched the three as they deciphered and argued between what DVDs they wanted. Every so often they would use Mae as the deciding vote for which movie would or wouldn't be watched. By the end they had decided on four movies—_The Exorcist _(Cassie insisted on this one)_, 30 Days of Night _and _One Missed Call. _They were just starting to put the other movies away when Carmen stepped through into the room carrying a tray of food.

"Popcorn—sweet, salted _and_ toffee; some chips and dip; _and_ a bit of healthy fruit and carrot sticks on the side so there's no excuse not to be eating healthy as well." Carmen said as she placed the tray down on the coffee table. They all chorused their 'thank yous'—Cassie and Ethan already diving to the food, digging their hands into the popcorn and chips. "Don't eat it all at once!" Carmen said, slapping Ethan's and Cassie's hands. "You need to save room for dinner. I'm making fajitas tonight." Carmen watched with amusement as Cassie, Ethan and Emilia's eyes all glazed over with hunger and delight. Carmen giggled. "I'll call when it's ready. Enjoy kids."

They started their movie night with _30 Days of Night_—the least scary of the three. The film was about vampires in an Alaskan town in the middle of nowhere. Cassie thought the film was stupid—claiming that she thought "vampires were stupid and the film was just carrying on the stupid craze that started ever since Twilight came about". "Now ghosts and possession—_that_ makes a good horror movie." Cassie proclaimed afterwards. Nonetheless, Mae enjoyed the film. Ethan especially liked the ending where the main guy turned himself into a vampire and started (Mae quotes) "vampire ass". Emilia had to calm him down when he started cheering at the TV. Cassie tried to calm him down by throwing popcorn at him, which didn't exactly work since he just ate it from his hair and tee.

Around the time they started watching _One Missed Call_, Carmen announced dinner was ready.

When they all headed downstairs and to the dining area, Carmen was setting the table and—at the end of the table—Mr. Sulez sat. Ethan, Emilia and Cassie all greeted the man who greeted them all back. Mr. Sulez also who greeted Mae with friendliness, which Mae replied with a shy smile and 'hello Mr. Sulez'. Carmen sat down at the other end of the table and the four teens placed themselves around the table, where the plates were positioned. Since they were having fajitas, they were just allowed to help themselves—Cassie and Ethan were the first to grab their tortilla wraps and pieces of chicken.

"So, Mae,"—Mr. Sulez suddenly asks her across the table—"Ethan tells me you work at Mystic Grill."

Mae, who had been grabbing her own tortilla wrap at the time, carefully placed it onto her plate and cleared her throat. She could feel the others looking at her as they ate their food. "Yes, I'm a waitress, but I also work behind the bar if needed."

Mr. Sulez nodded his head, looking impressed. "It's good to start working young—creates a better working ethic in later life. I started working with my father when I was fourteen—best decision I ever made. I'm sure you learn a lot working as a waitress, dealing with difficult customers and so forth."

Mae nodded slowly and gave Mr. Sulez a shaky smile. "Yes, I-I suppose."

Mr. Sulez gave her a kind smile, before tucking into his dinner.

Mae looked around the table—mostly everyone, but Carmen, was paying attention to their own foods. When Mae's eyes fell on Carmen, she spotted the woman was looking at her. She smiled at her warmly, to which Mae gave a blushed-cheeked smile in return, then looked down at her food.

The meal was filled with light conversation and the occasional playful argument between Cassie and Ethan, to which Carmen or Mr. Sulez usually broke a-part. Mr. Sulez appeared to be just as kind as his wife was which paid great reflection on Ethan and Emilia. Obviously their kindness and warmth had been passed down onto their children. The Sulez's family was the kindest family Mae had ever met and now Mae was surprised one bit that Cassie considered them like second family.

However, there was something slightly strange about dinner that Mae noticed from the start—which was the way that Mr. Sulez and Carmen seemed to pay her quite a significant amount of attention. Mae thought that, perhaps, it had something to do with the fact she was a new friend of Ethan and Emilia's and they were trying to welcome her in a kind and warm manner. Except, Mae couldn't help but think there was something more to it—something deeper than just welcoming a new friend of their children's. When they had finished dessert (ice-cream), they headed back up to the den, and Mae decided she would ask Emilia about it.

Emilia didn't seem concerned, surprised nor bothered by it. "Dad and Mom both knew your Mom from their school days—they were in the same class." Emilia informed Mae. "They were both really close with your Mom—or, at least, that's what they say. I suppose, for them, looking and talking to you was like being in the past again. Mom and Dad talked about your Mom sometimes—and your Dad, too, occasionally but they weren't as close to your Dad since he was two years older."

Mae couldn't find the words to reply to that and the conversation was dropped.

Three hours later and the movie night had ended, but _The Exorcist_ was still fresh on their minds. Cassie enjoyed the film, Ethan was creeped out, but Emilia had been scared out of her wits. Mae, too, could admit—despite the fact knowing it was all fake—was creeped out by the whole thing. Mae tried not to think about it when Cassie dropped off sometime after and headed up the dark yard and into the house. Luckily she wasn't walking into a pitch black, empty house. Liz was there—as she could tell from the cruiser parked outside. She was sitting on the sofa, watching TV. She smiled at Mae as she entered the room.

"Hey Mae. Have a nice time?"

Mae nodded and sat herself down on the sofa next to her. "Yeah—it was a lot of fun." Mae truthfully answered. She didn't even have to exaggerate. She really _did_ have a lot of fun.

"I'm glad." Liz said delightfully. "Oh,"—she suddenly said, as if remembering something—"I wanted to talk to you about something." Liz angled her body towards her on the sofa. "I bumped into Carol Lockwood this morning and she asked me to give you this." She dug into her pocket and handed her something. "It's an invite to the Annual Founder's Party next week on the 24th." Liz informed. "I know this will be your first time being invited to these things but Carol seemed to think it would be a nice idea for you to come. A lot of your ancestors' belongings will be displayed for you to look at. You like History right?"

Mae could say she wasn't mad on History, but she didn't hate it either.

"You can think about it if you'd like? She said she didn't need a definite answer until Monday. Not to push you, but I think Carol's right—it would be nice if you could come."

Mae gnawed on her bottom lip. "I _guess _I could go." She probably wouldn't enjoy it though.

Liz smiled brightly. "Great. The invite says you can bring a plus one—perhaps you could take that Donovan boy? He seemed nice."

Mae blushed 50 shades of red. "I-I-I don't think s-so."

_September 20__th__ 2009_

Two days later was Sunday and after spending the whole of Saturday working, today was Mae's day off and Mae planned to do something she hadn't done in a long while: visit her parents' and brother's graves. At noon, Mae wondered to the town's square to pick up some flowers from the florist using money from the tips she was given yesterday. She ended up picking out her Mom's favourite flowers: peonies. She paid the florist the price and headed out of the shop. She turned to right and then . . . smacked straight into someone. And that someone was Damon Salvatore.

"D-Damon—hi." Mae breathlessly acknowledged Damon's presence after rather embarrassingly bumping into him.

"Kitten." He drawled. Damon looked down at her and latterly the flowers in her hands. "For me? How kind." When Damon threw a devious wink at her, Mae blushed heavily and took a step back on one foot to create more space between them. "Are they for someone special?" Damon grinned wickedly at her, wiggling his eyebrows impishly.

Mae blushed and looked down at the flowers in her hands. "Th-They're for my Mom and Dad."

Damon paused for a second, taking in what she said with a cool face. "You're going to the cemetery."

Mae inhaled deeply through her nostrils. "Yes." She breathed, quietly, looking at a spot on Damon's shoulder.

"Well," Damon clicked his tongue. "What a coincidence—so am I."

Mae raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Y-You a-are?"

"Yes." Damon replied, perhaps a little too brightly for someone who was going to visit the dead. He then turned around and held out an elbow for her. "Shall we?"

Mae looked between Damon's face and his elbow. "Um . . . O-OK."

But without accepting his elbow, she started to walk. She glanced at Damon through her lashes, to see he didn't look in the least bit rejected when she didn't take his elbow, but rather his smirk thickened and he began to fall into stride at Mae's side. The two of them began to walk down the street, in the direction of the cemetery in completely silence. For Mae, the silence was awkward and uncomfortable, making her want to make some brash excuse and escape but when she looked at Damon, he looked at completely ease with the silence between them—looking around him with a calm, smirk on his face.

After sometime, Mae began to find the silence excruciating and blurted the first thing that came to her head. "H-How are things with Caroline?" Mae had said that so quickly that it didn't come out as a sentence, but rather a whole word.

Damon looked down at her and raised an amused brow. "Can you repeat that please?" he mocked.

Mae, feeling as if she was going to die from embarrassment, inhaled and said it again—slower. "How . . . are things . . . with you and Caroline?"

Damon snickered. "Fi . . . _ne_."

Mae knew he was talking the mick out of her and began to blush right to the tips of her toes.

"And how was your _date_ Friday night?" Damon winked.

Mae rolled her eyes and replied: "It was a movie night—with two other people."

"Ah," Damon replied. "That's just disappointing. I prefer the idea of you and that fiery redhead alone much more." Damon winked.

Mae gave him a look of half-amusement. "Well, sorry to disappoint then." She dryly replied.

"Apology accepted." Damon clicked his tongue.

They were almost at the cemetery now.

"Who are you visiting?" Mae quietly asked, gripping hard onto the flowers in her hands.

Damon looked down at her and gave her that all too familiar smirk again. "Who says I'm visiting someone?"

Mae played along. "Ah,"—she nodded—"So you're the kind of guy that likes to lurk around cemeteries and wallow with the dead?"

"Mmm," Damon hummed with a nod. "Today I'm having tea and cake with the great-great-great grandfather of Mayor Lockwood."

Mae couldn't help but giggle. Soon the humour wore off and seriousness between them had returned. "Do you have anyone in there?" Mae nodded to the cemetery as they dawned nearer to it.

Damon shrugged. "My parents."

Mae looked away; suddenly realising she had asked a private question. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be,"—Damon said, waving a casual hand—"They died a long while ago."

"Still," Mae whispered, looking downwards at the ground they walked upon, watching their feet move onto the pathway that lead into the cemetery. "I lost my parents three years ago and a day doesn't go by that their death haunts me." Mae muttered, she began to run her fingertips over the petals of the peonies.

"How did they die?" Damon asked.

Mae looked up at Damon. She didn't realise that her tears were welling until when she looked up at Damon, who was now a slightly blur. "House fire." Mae looked away quickly after she answered. She didn't want Damon to see the tears in her eyes—but she wouldn't be surprised if he already did. "It happened four years ago this February. I only survived because my bedroom was on the west side of the house; the fireman managed to climb through my window and get me out in time." Mae whispered, her vision becoming more blurred by the second. "I was asleep when it happened. When I woke up . . . I-I was s-so scared. Fire was _everywhere_—fire and smoke. I-I c-could barely breathe. I've had asthma all my life—I had to spend a f-few nights in h-hospital. The smoke in my lungs only made it worse."

"I'm sorry." Damon murmured. He looked unusually serious for once.

Mae quickly brushed away the tears and hoped Damon didn't see. "What about you?"

"Which one?" Damon dryly replied. "My mother died in childbirth with Stefan and my father was killed."

Mae looked up at the mysterious, good-looking man beside her. "Is that why you hate Stefan?" Mae suddenly blurted out without recognition. "Because your mother died in childbirth?" she tried to say as lightly as possible.

Damon looked met her gaze and gave her a small grin. "You caught on?"

Mae blinked and blushed. "You aren't discreet about it. '_Tormenting my brother is my full-time job_'." Mae repeated his own words.

Damon inhaled slowly and then said, after a moment's consideration: "No." he firmly answered her earlier question. "It wasn't because of my mother. I hate my brother for another reason . . ."—he then leant in and said—"_A girl._"

Mae leant her head back when she felt Damon was getting too close for her comfort. "Ah." Was all she said.

Damon looked at her, surprised. "Don't you want to know the story?"

Mae shrugged. "Not really." She murmured.

"Why?"

"Because you'll only tell me your perspective of the story. I'm all about getting all the facts." Mae replied.

Damon stepped back. "Well, by all means, go ask Stefan for his side of the story after I've told you mine. I'm sure he'll be _delighted _to tell you."

"No thank you." was Mae's clipped reply. "I-I have no interest in getting involved in a sibling battle. I've had plenty of experience of sibling rivalry with my brother, thank you very much."

Damon paused. "You have a brother?"

"_Had_." Mae corrected. "He died in the house fire too."

"Oh."

Awkwardness descended over them.

"Yeah," Mae breathed. "Y-You're lucky you have a brother y'know. I'd do anything to have my brother with me again." Damon didn't seem to respond to Mae's words or was in the least bit affected by them. He simply frowned at her. "I-I'll see you around Damon." she muttered. She turned around and began to head towards the direction of where her families' graves were located.

"Will I be seeing you at the Founder's Party on Thursday?" Damon asked after her.

Mae looked over her shoulder at him and nodded, before turning her head away and continuing down the path. She heard Damon say "bye kitten" behind her but she chose not to acknowledge it.

_September 24__th__ 2009_

The day of the Annual Founder's Party was a Thursday, which meant it was also a school day. Instead of going to History class to sign in, Mae headed straight home along with the rest of the students that were going to the Founder's party this evening. After finding out from the invite that the dress code was formal, Mae had to go out and buy a dress for the occasion. Luckily Liz generously gave her some cash for it which meant she didn't have to fork the money out of her car savings. Mae—who was completely foreign to buying formal attire—spent a good hour or so in the boutique in town that usually supplied the prom dresses and formal dresses. She eventually picked a dress that didn't cost an absurd amount, meaning she had money to give back to Liz.

The dress was a deep teal colour with thick straps, lace overlay and a square neckline. Mae paired it with a pair of nude kitten heels, since Mae wasn't an avid user of heels she couldn't manage anything more than a kitten heel. Mae kept her face bare, bar her lips which she put on a smidge of rosy pink lipstick that used to be her mother's. As for her hair, she kept that braided too, in a French braid down her back. She put in a pair of her mother's teardrop pearl earrings and a matching pearl necklace. After taking several moments to look at her reflection in the mirror, Mae decided she was too uncomfortable with her bare arms and grabbed a cardigan to slip on when she was going in and out of the party.

Mae drove to the party with Liz. When they arrived, they parked the car and made their way to the building, where they joined the line to greet Mayor and Carol Lockwood at the entrance. Somewhere up the line, Mae spotted Elena and Stefan.

"Mae! How you've grown," Carol exclaimed as soon as it was there turn to greet Mayor Lockwood and Carol Lockwood. "It must be years since I last saw you." _That's because the last time you saw me, it was at my families' funereal. Almost four years ago._

"Hello again Charles, Carol." Liz spoke, smiling politely and shaking their hands.

Mayor Lockwood smiled. "Hello Liz, Hello Mae. Come in, come in."

Liz and Mae walked forward into the threshold, where the party was escalating. Just looking around the foyer, Mae already knew she was out of her comfort zone and wondered why on Earth she agreed to this. Mae would probably end up sticking to Liz's side for the remainder of the night, no doubt. Mae lingered with Liz at the entrance, making small talk together and watching people wonder in and out of rooms. Eventually Mae decided she would test the waters and go find herself a drink. She was parched. She told Liz where she was going and headed over to the bar, where the dance-floor was at.

She picked up a champagne glass filled with orange juice and retreated into the corner of the room beside the indoor plants. She watched as people mingled whilst sipping her glass of orange juice until she spotted a familiar person across the room. It was Grace—she was dressed in a pretty white and lilac floral dress and looking just as much out of her comfort zones as she was. She was scanning the room, much like Mae had been doing, when her eyes landed upon Mae. Mae raised a hand to give her a small wave. Grace waved back and, with a moment of contemplation, she headed over to her.

"Hi." She breathed breathlessly to Mae.

Mae gave her a lopsided smile in return. "Hey." She replied.

Grace then looked at the glass in her hand. "Where did you get one of those?" Mae nodded to the tray on the bar nearby them. Grace went and grabbed one then came pondering back, sipping her orange juice. "I used to love coming to these things." Grace said, lowly to her when the two of them fell into a short-lived silence. Mae looked at her and Grace looked as if she was remembering an old memory. "Mom and Dad let me go to my first Founder's function when I was fourteen and I went to every other once since then. I loved the sophistication and formality of it all and I used to hate it when Elena was allowed to go but I wasn't." Grace took a small solemn sip of her orange juice. "But this time is different." Grace murmured lowly then said no more, staring absently at the mingling people around them.

Mae stared at Grace for a moment, licked her lips and then said. "My parents hated coming to these things. They were always really private. We all were."

Grace nodded and there was a moment of silence once again.

"Have you . . . have you told . . ."

Grace looked at her and shook her head. "No." Grace's lips set into a thin line. "At least . . . I don't know, now. Stefan Salvatore knows."

Mae's eyes opened wide. "I-I-I didn't tell him an-anything."

Grace looked at her for a long calculating moment. "I didn't think you did." She said in a whisper then looked away. "I don't know how he found out."

"Does anyone else know? They could have told him." Mae offered.

"I . . . I don't know." Grace struggled. "But . . ."—Grace took a steady breath—"I think it's about time I tell the Dad."

Mae blinked. "Here?"

Grace shrugged and shook her head. "I . . . I don't know, maybe. All I know is that I've got to tell him before someone else does."

Sometime later Mae returned to Liz when Grace left. Mae stuck with Liz for sometime until talking to total strangers that came along to talk to Liz became too boring. She began to wonder to the silent part of the house, where all the displays were behind held. She wondered in and out of the empty rooms, inspecting the belongings in cases—having lingering attention on the items belonging to Fells. At some point she came across the first registry for the Founder's Council. Her eyes trailed down the list, where the first Founder's Council members had written their names in pen. Her ancestor—Thomas Fell—was also on the registry. However, when she reached the bottom of the registry, her eyes froze.

_Damon Salvatore._

_Stefan Salvatore._

Mae blinked. Were the Salvatore brothers she knew named after the ones on this very registry list? It wouldn't surprise her if that was true. Uncle Bill was, after all, named after William Forbes.

"Mae?"

Mae turned around on the spot. It was Logan Fell, also known as her second cousin. This was probably the first time she had seen him since her families' funeral, bar the times she had seen him on her TV screen this past week. "L-Logan." Mae stammered, cheeks blushing, and shocked by Logan's presence.

"I see you're still the shy, stuttered little girl you always were," Logan stepped forward. Mae tried not to be offended by that comment and gave him a forced shaky smile. "How are you? How's living with Liz Forbes?"

Mae shuffled from side-to-side. "Fine, th-thanks."

"You've got to be fifteen? Sixteen? now right?"

Mae cleared her throat. "Seventeen in April."

Logan nodded. "Seventeen—good age. Well on your way to choosing your career path. Any ideas?" Mae shook her head. "Well, I wouldn't suggest news presenting for starters—your stutter wouldn't manage it." Logan chuckled. Now Mae _was_ offended by this. "I'll see you around kiddo." Logan slapped her twice on the back and then walked out of the room, without a second glance. Mae watched him leave, glaring into his back. When he was gone, the glare slowly disappeared.

When she left the room, she bumped into Elena.

"Mae, hey." Elena breathlessly acknowledged. "Sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going. How's the Math tutoring with Grace going?"

Mae's throat went dry. "Alright—she's a good learner."

Elena nodded, staring at her slowly. "Thanks for helping her. She really struggles with her Math." The way Elena said it, reminded Mae of a mother-hen looking after her chicks. "I was just wondering . . . has Grace said anything to you, at all, about . . . anything?"

Mae froze. "I-I don't know what you mean?"

Elena stared at her for a long, silent moment. "It's nothing. Forget I even said anything. Excuse me; I've got to go to the restroom. Bye Mae."

Mae managed a feeble "bye" in return as Elena brushed passed her and headed towards the bathrooms down the hall. Mae sighed and quickly escaped, moving back down the staircase to where the party was on full display. The front door was no longer open and the Mayor and his wife were no longer greeting people. Everyone who was in the room had apparently arrived. Mae moved back through the crowds and out back, into the cool fresh early autumn air. It was twilight now, meaning the backyard—where the bar and dance-floor was situated—was now being lit up by yard lamps on the ground and fairy-lights. Mae looked around in search of Liz or any other familiar face.

"My, my,"—Mae jumped when a voice appeared at her ear. Hot breath hit the back of her ear making her flinch—"You do clean up well. You should wear dresses more often, kitten."

Just by the voice and the nickname at the very end, Mae didn't even have to turn around to guess who it was. "Hello Damon." Mae said, stepping away and turning around, her eyes looking around—carefully looking for anyone who had noticed that display, most specifically looking for Caroline. Caroline would not be happy seeing her talk to her boyfriend. Mae acknowledged Damon with a stiff, awkward tone—making sure to keep at safe distance from him.

Damon cocked his head to the side. "Something wrong?"

Mae licked her lips and shook her head quickly. "I . . . I just don't think Caroline would approve if she were to see us talking." She struggled.

Damon rolled his eyes and took a leisurely sip from his champagne glass. "I'll take my chances."

Before conversation could even get started, they were interrupted by the appearance of Elena. From over Damon's shoulder, Mae had spotted Elena storm outside, scan the crowd with an urgent stare before landing on Damon's back. And then her eyes turned into slits and she began barging over to him. When she was within feet of him, she pushed him. "There is something seriously wrong with you. You stay away from Caroline or I'll go straight to her mother—_the Sherriff_. You got it? Stay away from her." Elena's eyes then moved to Mae and then said, with warning. "You should keep away from him Mae—if you want what's best for you." and then Elena stormed off, leaving it as just the two of them.

Damon watched Elena go over Mae's shoulder.

"What did you do?" Mae whispered. Damon's eyes finally flickered back to hers. He didn't answer. "D-Did y-you _hurt_ her?" again Damon didn't answer, but Mae didn't need an answer this time—Mae could already guess it from her face. "I highly suggest you don't come back to the house again." Mae said, in the most confident tone she could ever muster. She moved around him and walked back into the house. Damon didn't stop her and she didn't look back. Mae headed back into the house in search of Caroline. She eventually found Caroline in the restrooms upstairs, crying.

Caroline's head snapped up when she heard the restroom door softly close with a 'click' behind her. "Oh it's just you," Caroline sneered.

Mae ignored her comment and stepped forward gingerly. "Caroline—are you OK?"

"Yes. Of course I am." Caroline snapped.

She obviously wasn't.

"Elena . . ."—Caroline interrupted her:

"What did Elena do?" she hastily interrupted.

Mae opened her mouth. "She just went up to Damon . . . she said . . . she said he _hurt_ you. Caroline—did Damon _hurt_ you?"

"It's none of your business Mae!" Caroline seethed. "Why were you even _listening _in on their conversation?" Mae opened her mouth to explain that she was talking to Damon before it happened, but stopped herself knowing it would create more problems in Caroline's eyes. "Just keep your filthy nose out of other people's lives and _leave_!" Mae, all too used to Caroline's harsh words, simply turned on the spot and walked out of the room wordlessly. Caroline wanted her to leave, so she would leave. As soon as the door shut behind her, Mae's phone rang.

Mae pulled it out of her dress pocket and looked at the caller. It was Grace.

When Mae answered the call, she could hear the sniffles and gasps of Grace's voice. "Grace?" she said down the phone.

"M-Mae," Grace called from the other side. "I-I told Tyler." _Tyler? As in Tyler _Lockwood_?_ "I t-told h-him about . . ."—she gasps—"t-the ba-baby. He got mad . . . _so _mad."

Tyler Lockwood was the father.

Mae inhaled deeply. "Where are you Grace? I'll come to you."

Less than five minutes later, Mae had found herself a little away from the party, on a large plane of grass, behind some bushes. Grace was curled up—arms hugging her knees that were pressed to her chest—and tears falling down her cheeks. Her head snapped up and looked relieved when she saw it was Mae she had heard approach. "Mae!" Grace called out, got up from her bench and threw herself around Mae, beginning to sob into her shoulder. In a distant part of her head, Mae recognised this as the first time someone—other than family—had actually hugged her. Mae carefully brought her arms around Grace's body. At first Mae was lost for what to do, but then she remembered what her Mom used to do every time she cried; doing exactly what her Mom used to do, she began to gently brush her fingers through Grace's hair and make soothing hushing noises into her ears.

"It's OK." Mae said. It was the only thing Mae could think of to say.

After a few moments, Grace stepped back, wiping away the snot from her nose and the tears from her eyes with her hands. "I-I told him like I"—hiccup—"said I would." Grace inhaled a sharp, grasping breath. "A-And he didn't believe me . . . but when I proved it with _this_"—Grace pulled a pregnancy stick out from her clutch bag—"H-He got angry—s-saying I w-was trying to-to get to _be_ with me. An-d when he fi-finally believed me, he t-told me he didn't want any . . ."—hiccup—". . .thing to d-do with the-the _baby_."

"He's in shock." Mae attempted to reassure, her voice uneven. "Of course he wouldn't really mean it."

Grace swallowed and shook her head vigorously. "Y-Your wr-wrong. This is _Tyler Lockwood._"

She did have a point there.

"I-I can't be left alone to look after this baby Mae!" Grace suddenly began to panic. "I can't! I just can't!"

"Grace, calm down . . ."—

—"I don't even have a job to pay for the baby! I'll be left _borrowing _money or using my college fund! I'll never go to college! I'll _never_ make something of myself . . . I can't! I can't! I can't!" Mae didn't need to have seen a panic attack before to know this was what this was. "Please! Please! Mae—don't make me do this. I can't, I just can't." Grace then gasped, her face contorting in pain, and her hand slapping to her stomach.

Mae reached forward to grab Grace, to stop her from falling. "G-Grace?" she stuttered.

"_My stomach . . . _it _hurts_." Grace gritted out through her teeth.

Mae eased the sixteen year old down onto the ground. She hastily looked behind her—they were too far away to be seen by anyone at the party. And even if she shouted, they would be able to hear her. Mae looked down at the sixteen year old clutching her stomach in pure agony, crying out in pain. Mae couldn't leave her . . . which left her with only one decision. Mae pulled out her phone and dialled. When a voice answered, Mae spoke so quick it was almost a blur: "I-I need an ambulance at the Lockwood Manor. M-My friend . . . s-she's having severe abdominal pains—she's pregnant."

**So I updated again . . . Yeah, I don't know what's wrong with me. I started writing this chapter in hope to finish it next weekend but found myself unable to stop. I hope you liked the chapter—very full of drama towards the end, huh? Ha-ha. Don't get used to it though; it won't be like this all the time. What do you think of the way Mae acted this chapter—especially when it came to discovering Damon was physically abusing Caroline? Do you think Mae reacted the right way? I like to think Mae—despite her small flaws—as a good person and would be there for someone, even if that person was Caroline. Perhaps I've made Caroline a little too mean in this story, but Caroline has her reasons for why she treats Mae so. It's silly, petty reasons but considering the character that Caroline is, those reasons were enough for her to treat Mae the way she has all her life. They will come out with time.**

**Next chapter: You're Undead to Me.**


	7. You're Undead to Me & Homecoming Dance

**A/N: Important side-note. I've meddled around with the time-frame with this episode onwards. At the car wash, Caroline didn't go to the Salvatore Boarding House to try and free Damon. Elena knows what Stefan is but hasn't spoke to him about it, thus why you find out she will be avoiding him all week. However, the things that did happen on that day: Bonnie discovered her magic, Vicki & Jeremy hooked up. Damon will eventually escape from the cellar but it won't be until 1x07 (Haunted). This chapter is mostly about Homecoming & filling the time-gap error they made between 1x06 & 1x07.**

_September 25__th__ 2009_

When Mae arrived at Mystic Falls Memorial Hospital the next afternoon, rain had begun to pour from the murky clouds above. That night Mae had barely gotten any sleep, thinking about everything that had happened that evening at the Lockwood Manor. Albeit, once Grace had been loaded into the ambulance, everything seemed to calm down a little; Mae didn't see Damon again and Caroline had disappeared (with Bonnie as it later appeared). Liz and Mae left not long after. They went back home and Mae spent the whole ride contemplating whether she should tell Liz about what she had discovered about Damon (did Liz even know about Damon? . . . Mae doubts it, since Caroline went to so much effort to keep his presence concealed from Liz). They did talk about Grace though.

After calling the ambulance, Mae had called the next person she could think of—Liz, who in turn brought Jenna Sommers and Carol Lockwood, when they came running onto the scene. And when the EMTs came, that was when the secret came out. Jenna spluttered incontrollable incoherent words when the truth was revealed that her niece was pregnant. Carol had gone to get Elena, whom arrived just before the EMT had loaded Grace into the ambulance. Around that time Carol had gone back to the party, to assure any onlookers that all was well, making it appear that Grace had had a fall of some sort.

Once they parked in the driveway Liz turned to Mae and asked her a question. "Did you know about this?" Liz asked, obviously referring to the pregnancy. "Did you know Grace Gilbert was pregnant before this evening?" Rather than conjuring an answer (a lie even), Mae remained silent and turned her head to look at her lap. "Mae . . ." Liz sighed. "You should have let one of us know—if not Grace's family, then me, at the very least."

Mae bit on her lip tenderly before, after a moment's contemplation, she answered: "S-She told me not to tell anyone . . . I-I've only known a week . . . She said she was going to say something . . ."

Liz angled her body in Mae's direction. "Grace was—_is_—a scared little sixteen year old girl who had just found out she's pregnant. She's young, how's she to know what is good and not good for the baby? For all you know, she could have drunk or ate something tonight that wasn't good for the baby." Liz sighed when Mae's head didn't lift from her lap, in shame. "Did you see Grace drink or eat anything unusual?" Mae shook her head silently. "OK. Well, whatever the problem is, I'm sure they'll find out what exactly it is soon enough. Let's hope whatever's wrong isn't too dangerous for her or the baby." Liz muttered, with concern for the Gilbert child, before turning to open the door.

But before she could get out, Mae made her pause. "I'm sorry," she said after her, her voice low but heard. When Liz looked back at her, Mae genuinely looked apologetic and ashamed of her silence. "I . . . thought I was doing what was best for Grace . . . obviously I wasn't."

For the rest of the night Mae had remained awake, staring up at the ceiling, counting the things she had done wrong these past few weeks. Not only had she kept quiet about Grace's pregnancy and risked the life of the baby by not telling a sensible adult, Mae had also failed to notice her cousin was being physically abused by Damon Salvatore. The amounts of times Mae had spoken to Damon, had a _conversation_ with him—_laughed_ with him even—and all this time she was clueless to the type of guy he really was. To say Mae felt like a fool was an understatement and she certainly wouldn't be making the same mistake with Damon again. She just hoped that Caroline would do the same.

Caroline hadn't come back until gone midnight last night, walking through the door (quieter than usual) and informed Liz that she had spent the rest of the evening with Bonnie before retiring to her bedroom. She barely made one noise as she retreated to her bedroom; the sound of the soft click of her bedroom door was all that was heard after she left. Her room was silent for the rest of the night. Liz seemed to notice Caroline's different demeanour but said nothing of it. Liz's concern was short-lived for by the next morning (Friday). Caroline _appeared _to be back to normal and Mae couldn't quite place whether it was all a façade or not.

The day at school was slow. Some people talked about Grace, but no-one truly knew the truth to why she was in hospital. Tiki—Caroline's fellow cheerleader—had said that maybe she was attacked by the same animal that killed Tanner, but Caroline finished that theory with a "Don't be so stupid, Tiki"—she had snapped to the girl during English class—"That animal's been caught." And then people were back to level one, blindly guessing the reasons for Grace's admittance to hospital.

Meanwhile, Mae spotted both Tyler and Elena around school; Elena seemed solemn and accepted the kind well-wishes for her sister from people in class with a polite 'thanks'; Tyler, however, was the polar opposite—he pretended to be completely oblivious to the fact Grace was in hospital, which infuriated Mae to no end.

Ethan, Emilia and Cassie brought up Grace during their lunchtime session in the library but when Mae made no concealment to her discomfort on the topic, Ethan quickly changed it.

Mae didn't go to History class to sign in that Friday afternoon—but apparently she wasn't the only one (people had taken to skipping that hour completely, since they weren't actually being taught yet). Instead Mae headed straight to the hospital which leads her to the present: where she was standing in front of the automatic doors leading into the hospital building. Shielding herself from the rain with the hood of her jacket, she rushed inside and shook off the hood and the rain droplets on her jacket. She approached the front desk, where from behind it a pale-faced nurse directed her to Grace's room. She headed to the ward, just off from the ER, and paused at room '106'. She knocked twice, heard an audible 'come in' from inside, and opened the door cautiously.

Inside the room, Grace was on one of the beds, hooked to a machine but awake nonetheless. Jenna was beside her, on one of the chairs, which was near the nightstand filled with flowers and chocolates. One of the chocolate boxes was already opened on Grace's lap and half-eaten. The sixteen year old looked pale, but well nonetheless. "Mae," Jenna acknowledged her. "I'm sorry; I don't think Grace is in the state to be tutored right now . . ."

Mae's eyes flickered to Grace—obviously Grace hadn't explained that lie to Jenna yet—and then back to the strawberry blonde woman. "A-actually I-I just wanted t-to check Grace was OK."

Jenna opened her mouth. "Oh, right . . . of course." She seemed to remember that Mae had been there last night when Grace fell ill. Jenna turned to Grace. "Do you want me to leave you two alone?"—Grace simply shrugged. Jenna took that as a yes and stood. "I'll go grab myself a coffee. Mae—do you want anything?"

"N-No thank you Miss Sommers." Mae muttered. Jenna gave her a quirked brow. Mae blushed embarrassingly. "Uh . . . Jenna, sorry." She corrected herself. Jenna left the room soon after leaving it as just the two of them. "Hey." Mae said to break the silence soon after. Her voice came out breathless and awkward. She mentally winced at herself ("_Hey? That's all you can say?_").

Grace gave Mae a half-hearted smile. "Hey." She then gestured to the chair Jenna had once been vacating. "Sit?"

Mae nodded and carefully placed herself down, awkwardly locking her ankles together under the seat, and placed her hands on her lap. "How are you?" Mae then asked.

Grace shrugged. "OK . . . I guess. They kept me overnight for observation. They'll think I'll be out tomorrow though." she then reached down and picked up a chocolate. "Chocolate?" she motioned to the box with her hand. Mae shook her head and Grace popped the ball of chocolate into her mouth. Her face scrunched up almost immediately. "Turkish Delight,"—she swallowed with a grimace—"I guess that's another thing the baby doesn't like anymore . . ." she muttered before picking up the little card listing all the chocolates in the box. "I wonder about the hazelnut one . . ."

Mae watched Grace pick at the box of chocolate for a short time before saying something again. "So the baby . . ."—Grace looked up—"It's OK?"

Grace suddenly became very sober, a frown falling on her lips. "One of them is." Mae's mouth opened. "Twins,"—Grace informed—"Or least . . . it was. I miscarried one, they managed to save the other."

"I'm . . . sorry." Mae whispered, not quite sure whether that was what Grace wanted to hear.

Grace shrugged. "It's a blessing in disguise I guess,"—she mumbled, looking down at the chocolate in front of her with a little too much intent—"I never could have looked after twins at my age, without help that is." Grace picked up another chocolate, examined it, and the carefully put it into her mouth—nibbling at the edge. When she seemed to react well to the chocolate, she more bravely put it into her mouth.

"And your family?"

"They know." Grace said, perhaps a little too lightly. "There's no denying it after last night."

Mae licked her lips. "How did they react?"

Grace shrugged. "OK . . ." she seemed awfully nonchalant for someone who had been worrying about having their family find out just a day ago. "Jeremy got annoyed when I refused to abort the baby and hasn't come back since; Elena's mothering me, like always; and Jenna . . . she tries not to show it, but she's disappointed." Grace finished off with a whisper.

"But you're OK—I'm sure that what's most important to her." Mae murmured.

Grace nodded slowly. "Yeah . . ."

There was a moment's silence.

"Thanks, Mae . . ."—Grace suddenly said out of the blue, meeting Mae's eyes with her warm brown ones—". . . for not telling anyone. It means a lot." Mae gave her a forced smile in return and said nothing. "And maybe, when you can, you should come visit me. It'll be nice to have some company. I'm taking 2 weeks off—the doctor's orders."—Grace explained—"I have to relax and settle into my sessions with my new therapist."—Grace looked at Mae's expression and then said—"Yeah . . . the doctor thought it would be best, with the way I behaved last night. Thinks it would be a good idea to talk to someone about the baby and . . . and my parents."

Mae nodded slowly. "T-That sounds like a good idea."

"Did you ever go see a therapist after . . ." Grace trailed off.

"No." Mae shook her head.

Grace was silent for a spilt moment. "I-I don't know how you coped."

Mae shrugged in reply, when mentally, she was thinking: '_Who said I coped_?'

_October 3__rd__ 2009_

The week passed as quick as a flash and before Mae knew it, it was Friday again. The week had been spent revolving around three things: school, work and homework. Mae hadn't seen Grace again, but had arranged over text to meet up with her at the grill after school today. The Sexy Suds Car Wash had been hosted on the Monday by Caroline, which Mae avoided like the plague. The car wash had been a fund-raiser for the school's athletic team. And since she was by no means a contributing part to the athletic team, it gave her good enough reason to avoid it (not that anyone would ask her why she wasn't contributing anyway).

As for Caroline, things were normal; she didn't speak a word about Damon to her (in fact she didn't speak a word to her this entire week) and she pretended as if none of it had happened. Damon appeared to have listened to what Elena had said to him and hadn't shown himself again since the Annual Founder's Party. Stefan has also been absent for the majority of the week, which meant she spent most of Math class sitting by alone (not that she minded). During lunch, Mae spent it eating with Cassie, Emilia and Ethan in the library. It seems to have become tradition for them to join her in the library now and has come to the point where Mae no longer doubts whether she'll be spending lunch alone.

After spending so many of her years sitting and eating lunch alone, this new change came as a culture shock but one that she nonetheless welcomed after time, when their intentions appeared kind. Mae still couldn't decide whether they were eating with her out of pity or really did enjoy her company. Regardless, she felt herself beginning to become more comfortable in their presence. And Ethan had Mae to thank for that—he, out of all them, had been the one that made the effort to really make her feel apart of the group. That still isn't to say that Mae still didn't feel like a wallflower, because she was still very much a wallflower. She just . . . didn't feel as lonely anymore, which was something Mae was still trying to get used to; she couldn't remember a time when she hadn't felt the loneliness since her family died.

For the entire week the school had been talking about the fast approaching Homecoming dance. Homecoming would be hosted next week, on the Friday, which meant it was only 7 days away and the dateless were getting desperate. Much like all the previous years, people had begun to ask others during classes when the teacher's weren't in the room. Luckily nothing like last year happened; when Tyler Lockwood asked Mae to be his Homecoming date during English in front of the whole class as a cruel joke. Mae still remembered the way the whole class laughed, snickered and giggled (Caroline was amongst them, smirking and watching with that wicked look in her eye. Mae had later found out from her cousin at home that she had dared Tyler to ask her in front of everyone).

Safe to say, Mae kept her head further down during this week and avoided everything that might attract any unnecessary attention to her. One of the things—or person in this circumstance—Mae avoided was Matt Donovan. Although they hadn't spoken since the days leading up to the football game Tanner died at, Matt had taken to smiling, waving or saying 'hi' to her in the corridors or when he was walking past her in class to his seat. Normally Mae would smile awkwardly back, but this time she had taken to not even looking up from her notepad when Matt would enter the room or taking longer routes to class.

Mae was already planning her quiet, relaxing night in next Friday while the rest of the school was at the dance.

But things took a different course during lunch this Friday, present day. Mae had already arrived at her usual table towards the back of the library, pulled out her sandwiches and began to silently eat alone until Ethan, Emilia and Cassie arrived. They arrived ten minutes later, hiding their lunch from the librarian in their jacket pockets and bags, which they unloaded out onto the table as soon as they arrived. They usually went down to the cafeteria to grab some food before coming up the library to join Mae, who normally brings lunch in from home. As they arrived Mae quickly became aware of Cassie's foul mood. She watched Cassie apprehensively, wondering what might have brought this foul mood out of her, but gave up not a moment later for too many things put Cassie in a bad mood. High school in general usually put Cassie in a bad mood.

Ethan, however,—who had placed himself down next to her—seemed to notice her inner musing. "Don't mind Cassie today—she's just cranky because her Mom unloaded a surprise on her this morning." Cassie shot Ethan a look that could kill before ripping off the plastic lid of her salad. Confused, Mae looked between Ethan and Emilia, silently hoping one of them could supply the answers. "Cassie's Mom went behind her back and bought Cassie a ticket to Homecoming." Ethan watched Cassie with a mocking, teasing grin. "Say, Cassie, have you thought about who you're going to take to Homecoming? I hear Tyler Lockwood's going bachelor this year."

Cassie's hand curled tight around her fork angrily. "Shut it Sulez or I'll shove this fork down your throat." Ethan didn't appear remotely threatened or offended by this. "And I don't know why you're even laughing. Once your Mom gets a whiff of what my Mom has done, you'll have yourself a nice surprise during breakfast too."

Ethan sat back in his chair and rolled his eyes. "Mom won't be doing anything." He retorted challengingly. "Because she won't need to." he continued, reaching in his pocket to brandish three sparkly rectangular cards and flapped them around.

Cassie's mouth dropped. "You didn't . . . When . . ."

Ethan shrugged. "I got them this morning after you told us. What kind of friends would let you walk into the snake pit by yourself?"

"Shit ones." Cassie answered, a slow grin appearing on her lips.

Ethan smirked and nodded then handed two of the tickets to Emilia and Mae. Emilia took the ticket right away and Mae just stared at it like it was some sort of extraterritorial object. "Mae—you'll come with us won't you? It wouldn't be the same without you."

Mae looked up at three pairs of expecting eyes. Ethan's words rung through her head; _it wouldn't be the same without you, it wouldn't be the same without you, it wouldn't be the same without you. _Did he really mean what he had just said? Gingerly, Mae reached forward and pried the ticket from his fingers. "Um . . . OK."

And that was how Mae agreed to going to Homecoming for the first time.

That evening, Mae had met Grace at the grill. Grace was already there when Mae arrived, sipping on a glass of cherry soda. All this week Grace has been on house arrest by Jenna and being smothered by Elena, but surprisingly Jenna had been OK with Grace coming out to meet Mae at the grill this evening. Grace had un-doubtfully seized this opportunity to leave her imprisonment and had left a little earlier than they had arranged. Grace had taken Jenna's Mini Cooper and had offered to give Mae a ride home after this. When the topic of Homecoming came up, Grace was in for a surprise.

"_You_—Mae Fell—are going to . . . _Homecoming_?" Grace blurted in disbelief. Mae heavily blushed in retort. "Sorry,"—Grace said quickly—"Don't get me wrong, I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself, but . . . I don't think I've ever seen you at one of these things." Grace furrowed her brow in thought.

Mae was pulling and twisting at the end of her braid as she replied. "You haven't. I-I don't go to those kind of things." Mae stared down at her own glass of cheery soda.

"I wish I could be going to Homecoming." Grace grumbled, moving her glass around on the table. "Last year I went with my best friend Jess. It was so much fun. You'll enjoy yourself really, Mae." Mae doubted it. She was already contemplating seeing if she could get a shift at the grill for that night so she didn't have to go. "Oh," Grace suddenly said. Mae looked up and saw she was looking at something—someone—behind Mae. Mae looked around and spotted Stefan standing at the entranceway of the grill. He was looking around the room, searching for someone. His eyes landed on Grace and Mae. Mae turned back around in her seat as Grace looked back down at her drink. After a few, long, moments Grace looked up and sighed. "He's gone, thank God." Grace slouched back in her seat. "He was looking for Elena, obviously."

"C-Couldn't he just call her?"

Grace rolled her eyes. "He could . . . again. But he won't get through."

Mae nodded in realisation. "Lovers spat."

"Something like that, I guess." Grace said, shrugging in half-agreement. "I don't really know what happened between them—Elena wouldn't say. She's just avoided him for the entire week. She doesn't exactly seem keen to see him either. I can't decide if it's just another Matt situation or if they're arguing. I can never tell with Elena. You might not think it, but she really does keep her relationship life private." Grace sighed and then said: "I'm just glad he didn't come over here. What am I meant to say? '_Sorry, she's been busy_'?" Grace rolled her eyes. "He's already been calling at the door. I can't keep lying to him. She's going to have to break up with him eventually."

"Y-You think they're going to break up?"

Grace shrugged. "Looks like it's going that way, doesn't it?" Grace put the straw from her glass into her mouth and took a long sip. "Have you got a dress to wear to Homecoming?" Mae mentally groaned; she didn't even think about what she was going to wear. The only remotely formal dress she had was the one she wore to the Founder's Party.

"I-I guess I'll just wear the one I wore last Thursday." Mae shrugged.

Grace looked at her in horror. "You can't do that!"

Mae shook her head in confusion. "Why?"

"J-Just . . . Because!" Grace spluttered. "Hey, when are you next free? We can go dress shopping together."

_October 4__th__ 2009_

The next day Mae headed into work at about lunchtime with a slight skip in her step. She was happy, but it wasn't because she was going to Homecoming, or because she had arranged to go dress shopping with Grace tomorrow but because of a envelope she had received this morning. In the envelope was a printed copy of her bank statement. She had finally raised enough money to buy a car.

As she walked to work that Saturday, Mae was already thinking of what life would be like with her own car. She wouldn't have to be walking to school or work every day anymore, to begin with. She could even take day trips on her days off to cities outside Mystic Falls. The things she could do with a car will be endless.

"Morning," Rob grumbled from behind the bar as Mae arrived. "You'll be behind the bar today. We're short on staff again."

Without question, Mae nodded and took over from Rob behind the bar, mentally wondering whether Vicki had cancelled last minute again. It wouldn't surprise her in the slightest if it were true. Vicki wasn't exactly the most responsible worker here at the grill. Even Erin, who goes to Whitmore College, still manages to show up more than Vicki. Mae set to work quietly—taking orders from behind the bar, handling cash behind the till and keeping everything to hygienic standards. Customers came and went, keeping Mae busy (but not too busy) for an hour or so. Sometime around one thirty, Mae wasn't busy enough to spot Ethan, Emilia and Cassie enter the grill. Ethan and Emilia waved at her from across the room and Cassie gave her a smile and nod. Mae returned the waves and smiles.

Because Mae was working behind the bar today, she wasn't able to serve Ethan, Emilia and Cassie (Erin did that), but while they were waiting for their meals Ethan had came up to her while she was filling a glass. "Hey," Ethan said, in his usual cheery tone of voice. "How's it going?"

"Hey." Mae replied, a little breathless. "Fine,"—she muttered—"It's not too busy today."

"When do you get off?" Ethan then went on to ask.

Mae licked her dry lips and turned to look at the clock over her shoulder. "Five."

"Great! You up for coming back to mine for dinner? We're having a barbeque."

Mae scraped her top teeth along her bottom lip to stop herself from smiling. "A barbeque . . . in October?"

Ethan simply shrugged and grinned back. "Why not? Barbeques are great." Mae looked away when his dark, sparkling brown eyes met hers and blushed. "So . . . is that a yes?"

"Y-Yeah, OK."

Ethan grinned triumphantly. "Brilliant. I'll come and pick you up from here at five."

Mae's mouth opened and her eyes widened "O-Oh, n-no you-you don't have to do th-that . . . I-I can walk . . ."

Ethan rolled his eyes and paced off Mae's comment with a wave of the hand. "Don't be silly, Mae. I'll pick you up." just then Erin exited from the kitchens with plates of food in her hands. "Well, it looks like our food is ready. I better get back to the other two." Ethan patted the bar surface. "See you at five, Mae." And then Ethan wondered off. When he was half-way across the room, a chuckle from behind the bar sounded. Mae looked to the elderly man behind the bar.

"Looks like you've got yourself a date tonight, girlie."

Mae's whole face went on fire. "N-N-No, it- . . . it's not a d-d-date."

The elderly man threw back the continence of the glass and stood, picking up his walking stick and leant over the bar to say: "It sounded awfully like a date to me." Before he turned on the spot and slowly began walking out of the grill.

Mae stared after the elderly man in completely shock and horror.

_It wasn't a date . . . was it?_

Ethan, Emilia and Cassie came and left after two hours. Mae barely caught their waves goodbye to her from behind the bar because she was so absorbed in her own thoughts. She couldn't stop thinking about what the elderly man from the bar had said to her. Every knew moments or so, she would laugh at the situation, knowing that it couldn't possibly be a _date_, but then she would think of all the things that may indicate that this was in-fact a date. Ethan didn't mention about Cassie being there, or anything about Emilia for that matter. And he _was_ going out of his way to pick her up. Isn't that what the guys did at the beginning of dates—pick up the girl? At least, that was what they did in the movies. Mae mentally scoffed and rolled her eyes. She was obviously getting ahead of herself. There was no way that Ethan could like her. Even though Ethan wasn't some jock like Matt Donovan or Tyler Lockwood, he still wouldn't fancy someone like her. Mae was out of his league. He'd probably fancy someone like Cassie or Elena Gilbert.

Believing that Ethan couldn't possibly like Mae brought her a sense of relief, thus she was able to work until 5 without feeling anymore panic or worry on whether this was actually a date or not. When 5 rolled around, Rob let her go and Mae exited out the grill, and lingered on the sidewalk, eyes peeled for Ethan's truck. Five minutes later, Ethan had pulled up outside the grill in his truck, giving her that all-too enthusiastic smile that made her doubt everything she had thought earlier. And to make matters worse, he had changed. He was wearing a smart blue polo and dark jeans.

"Do you want to stop by yours to change?" Ethan asked after Mae had settled into the truck.

Mae looked down at her attire. "Um . . ."

"You don't have to,"—Ethan quickly backtracked—"Just thought you'd like to change out of your work clothes."

Mae cleared her throat. "O-OK."

Ethan gave her a small smile before putting the truck into reverse. "OK."

The ride to the Forbes household was quiet; apart from the few questions that Ethan would ask in attempt to spark conversation. Mae knew what she was doing—she was freezing up—but no matter how much her inner voice screamed at her to act normal, she just _couldn't. _Her body was betraying her. She barely said a word to Ethan when she stepped out of the truck onto the sidewalk outside her house. Inside the house, she rushed to her room and slammed the door behind her (thankful to not have Liz or Caroline in the house to hear her slam the door behind her). For a long, disorientating moment of shock Mae stared at herself in her full length mirror with wide eyes.

_Was this really a date_?

Did she really just, obliviously, say yes to a date with _Ethan Sulez_?

Tumnus meowed from her bed.

"I think I've just done something really stupid, Tumnus." Without thinking about Ethan waiting outside in the truck, Mae collapsed onto the bed. Tumnus jumped up from her pillow, sauntered over to her, and began to nuzzle Mae with his wet pink nose. Mae groaned and threw her arm over her eyes. "And the thing is, I can't even tell if it _is_ even a date." Mae mumbled to herself, wincing. "He didn't exactly make it clear whether it was a date or not." She felt Tumnus lick the fingers of the arm draped over her eyes. She sighed, turning on her bed to look at Tumnus. "_Is_ this a date, Tumnus?" Tumnus blinked his wide eyes and meowed obliviously. Mae threw herself back onto her back with a huff. "Not like you could offer me any advice—you're a cat." She mumbled, scratching Tumnus' fur. He began to purr.

She lay there for several long moments until she heard the doorbell sound. Then she shot up from the bed, remembering Ethan was still waiting for her. "Crap!" she threw off her work clothes, leaving them in a heap on her bedroom floor, and pulled on the first (decent) thing she could find. It was a pale coral blouse and some jeans. She threw a cardigan and jacket overtop and ran out to the door. Behind the door, Ethan was waiting anxiously. "S-Sorry. I . . . uh . . . had to feed Tumnus."

Ethan's brow furrowed. "Tumnus?"

"My cat." Mae mumbled, pushing a lock of stray hair behind her ear.

Ethan nodded and the two of them headed to the truck, slipping back into their seats. "Are you OK?" Ethan asked once they had reached the bottom of the street. Mae looked to see Ethan was giving her a concerned look. "You seem . . . distant." Mae shook her head. Ethan gave her a calculating look but seemed to pass it off, when Mae made no movement to admit to being anything other than fine. "It's going to be just us this evening." Ethan announces.

Mae throat seemed to get considerably tighter. "Just . . . us?" she croaked.

Ethan nods. "Yeah—Dad has an out of the blue conference call in Georgia. He and Mom left an hour ago." Ethan threw her a wide grin. "Sorry, it'll be take-away pizza tonight."

"Th-that's . . . fine." Mae stuttered.

"You're not lactose intolerant, are you?" Mae shook her head. "And you like pizza?" Mae nodded. "Good. We're here." Ethan announced as they came to a slow stop outside the Sulez residence. Some lights were on in the house. "Let's go and order then." Ethan said, pulling himself out of the truck.

When Ethan's door slammed shut, Mae inhaled deeply and tried to steady her nerves. An inner voice was telling to ask him face-to-face whether this was a date or not, but Mae knew she would never do that. Mae jumped when a knock came from beside her. She turned her head to see Ethan leaning over her window, grinning at her.

"What are you doing?" Ethan's voice was muffled through the glass, but heard nonetheless. Mae blushed. Ethan then straightened up and opened the truck door. "Madame." He teasingly exclaimed. Ethan held the door out for her.

Mae did not like how things were going one bit. It was beginning to feel more and more like a date by the minute.

Mae and Ethan made their way up to the front door, where they paused so that Ethan could retrieve his keys. He unlocked the door and the both of them stepped inside. "Here, let me take your jacket." Ethan said to her softly. Still blushing and stammering, Mae handed him her jacket awkwardly (almost getting her arms stuck in the sleeves when she removed it) and said 'thanks'. Ethan shut the front door and headed to the closet to hang the jackets up. As Ethan tended to the jackets, Mae became aware of the sound of footsteps from the floor above. And then, moments later, Emilia and Cassie appeared at the top of the staircase.

"There you are. _Finally_. What the Hell took you so long?" Cassie demanded, hand on hips.

Ethan looked up from the closet and glared up at Cassie. "Mae had to go change." He then shot Mae a jokey, rolled-eye look over his shoulder.

"Whatever." Cassie clucked her tongue in distaste. "Let's order this pizza already, I'm starving."

Mae had never felt more like an idiot than in this moment. She couldn't even find it in her to laugh at the situation, because she felt like too much of an idiot. She followed Ethan up the stairs and then do the den where Emilia and Cassie were gathered around the pizza take-away menu. Emilia looked up and smiled at Mae in greeting. The four of them sat down and began to decide what they would have for lunch. They ended up ordering two large pizzas to share, along with sides of fries. The pizza delivery said it would take up to thirty minutes, which meant they talked for another fifteen minutes then headed downstairs to lay the table and make themselves some drinks. When food arrived fifteen minutes after that, they all chipped in with what money they had. After paying off the pizza delivery man, they eagerly dug into their pizza and fries. There was five minutes of silence and just eating, conversation sparked up.

"Mae,"—Emilia turned her attention towards her. She was sitting across from Mae, next to Ethan—"Have you sorted out a dress for Homecoming?"

Mae shook her head, swallowing her mouthful of pizza before swallowing. "Um, no; I'm actually going with Grace on Tuesday."

"Grace Gilbert?" Ethan asked.

"Yeah."

Ethan nodded silently and turned back to his pizza.

"Would you mind if I came with you?" Emilia asked, politely. "I don't have anything to wear for Homecoming. The dress from my cousin's wedding doesn't fit anymore."

Ethan snorted. "Weren't you 12 when you wore that thing?"

Emilia pouted. "So?"

Ethan shrugged.

"Erm . . . I'll ask Grace. I-I'm sure she wouldn't mind though." truthfully, Mae didn't know whether Grace would mind. She would have to text her and see.

Emilia smiled. "Thanks!"—she then turned her eyes to Cassie—"Cassie—what about you?"

"Hm?" Cassie looked up from her food.

"Do you want to come dress shopping with me, Mae, and Grace on Tuesday?"

Cassie shrugged. "Sure. Whatever. Food." She grunted and shovelled another piece of pizza into her mouth.

Emilia giggled and turned to Mae. "I think that was a 'yes'."

After several helpings of pizza between them, they began to clean up their mess. Half way through cleaning it all up, Cassie went to the bathroom and Emilia went to change her top which she had spilt ketchup down it, leaving it as just Ethan and her. For the first part, Ethan talked to her about school and classes, and then afterwards the subject went onto Homecoming. Ethan had jokingly asked what kind of cheesy music they would play at the dance, and the two of them began a small game of betting on the cheesiest music would be played. It was actually kind of funny, and Mae found herself laughing at multiple times—especially when Ethan began to re-enact the Cotton Eyed Joe dance routine.

When the laugher settled down, they went back to cleaning.

"Has anyone asked you to the dance?" Ethan asked, casually, after a short pause of silence.

Mae's cheeks went red. "Uh, n-no." she said, ducking her head low.

"Will you go with me?" Mae's head snapped up. Ethan look one look at Mae's shocked face and began rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "I . . . never mind. Uh, forget I even said anything." He mumbled and turned his attention back to the dishwasher he was loading.

There was a long awkward silence between the two of them and in that silence Mae considered what Ethan had just asked her. The idea of going on a date had mortified Mae, but after realising everything had been a big misunderstanding and after the laughs they had shared just a moment ago, the idea of going with Ethan to Homecoming didn't seem quite so scary. _Did this mean that Ethan really _did_ like her then_? Mae thought to herself, a small smile creeping its way onto her lips. If so, that would mean he would be the first person to take interest on her—ever. Maybe going to Homecoming with Ethan _would _be fun.

"Y-Yes." Ethan looked up at her, his face suddenly filled with hope. Her cheeks flushed, looking up at Ethan through her lashes, she elaborated with a whisper: "I-I will go to Homecoming with you." Before she could even watch Ethan's reaction take place, something from the corner of her eye caught her attention. She turned to look at the kitchen door where she just managed to see a flash of red crimson hair before it was gone. Cassie had heard what she had just said. But why did she disappear? Mae swallowed and looked back at Ethan.

She couldn't decide whether these butterflies in her stomach were a good thing or bad thing.

_October 7__th__ 2009_

Mae didn't speak to Ethan nor Emilia until Monday lunchtime, and even then the subject of dates for Homecoming wasn't brought up. Cassie wasn't there that lunch, apparently Cassie had texted Ethan claiming that she was sick and taking the day off. Ethan nor Emilia seemed to think this was abnormal; apparently this was normal for Cassie, to have random days off. It was usually because she couldn't be bothered to come into school, which—thinking about it—seemed like something Cassie would do in Mae's mind. It wasn't a secret that Cassie hated high school and the only reason she was there was for the high school diploma. Nonetheless, a voice at the back of Mae's head couldn't help but wonder whether Cassie's out-of-the-blue day off had anything to do with what she had heard on Saturday.

After seeing Cassie disappear from the corridor outside the kitchen, Emilia had walked into the room five minutes later announcing Cassie had gone suddenly. Ethan and Emilia were confused by this, but didn't dwell on it too much (apparently Cassie tended to disappear from time to time too). They watched a movie and a bit of Saturday night television before Ethan took Mae home. Ethan didn't get to talk to Mae about their date to Homecoming on the drive back, as Emilia decided to tag along for the ride, which Ethan joked was because Emilia hated being in an empty house on her own. Emilia had briefly hugged Mae good-bye when they arrived at the Forbes' residence and Ethan had done the same afterwards.

On Sunday morning, Mae had texted Grace about the shopping trip on Tuesday. That afternoon, Grace replied saying she didn't mind Emilia and Cassie tagging along, and because it was over text Mae wasn't sure whether she was just saying it to not make or fuss or whether she really didn't mind. Mae could only assume Grace didn't mind and see what happens Tuesday afternoon. By the time Tuesday (today) came around, Emilia had made arrangements to pick Cassie up and then meet Mae and Grace at the dress store they were going to in town. Cassie had came into school that day, acting completely normal, and seemingly still up for going dress shopping this afternoon. Mae, on the other hand, was getting picked up by Grace which Mae considered was perhaps for the best as she could explain Cassie's tendencies beforehand so Grace is alarmed or offended.

After spending a whole hour in the library, the bell rang signalling the end of day. Mae headed straight to the parking lot where she searched the lines of cars for the Mini Cooper Grace had driven her home in last week. She spotted it at the very end of the parking lot and headed towards it. Grace was inside the car, watching people pile out of the building Mae had come out of. She had barely registered Mae's arrival, until the car door snapped shut behind Mae. Grace turned to her, her face suddenly conflicted.

"Hi." She attempted a cheery tone of voice.

"You . . . OK?" Mae cautiously murmured.

Grace glanced back at the school and the nodded. "Yeah . . . I'm just dreading coming back here in a week, is all."

Mae immediately understood. "No-one knows." Mae insisted, in the most convincing tone she could. "Just me, your sister, Stefan and Jeremy."

"And Tyler." Grace said, so low Mae almost hadn't heard it. She was looking back across the parking lot again.

Mae looked in the direction Grace was looking and spotted Tyler leaning against his car, chatting to a cheerleader. The conversation didn't exactly look innocent. "H-has he talked t-to you since the party?"

Grace dropped her head and shook her head. "No." she whispered. Mae felt a pang of anger towards the rich son of the Mayor. "I don't think he's talked to anyone about it. I . . . I think he's just pretending I never said anything."

"H-he's in denial." Mae tried to comfort.

"So was I . . . but then I miscarried. You'd think hearing that the girl you knocked up is in hospital, having a miscarriage, would be some sort of wake-up call wouldn't you?" Grace muttered stiffly.

Mae inhaled and said, despite her anger: "Don't give up yet. Things may turn around."

Grace simply sighed and put the car in reverse, without giving an answer. When they arrived at the dress shop, Emilia and Cassie weren't there yet, but they had already expected that—Emilia had texted Mae saying that they were running late but were going to be there as quick as possible. Mae and Grace decided that they would start browsing without them. They parked the car in the town's square and headed across the street to the dress shop that Mae had went to to get her Founder's Party dress. Grace's mood didn't seem to perk when they entered the dress shop. She browsed through the dresses with a look of longing in her eyes and Mae wondered whether going dress shopping was the best thing for Grace.

Before Mae could offer to Grace that they went elsewhere, Emilia and Cassie arrived. Emilia, seemingly breathless, apologised for their lateness. Mae introduced Grace to Emilia and Cassie—Emilia greeted Grace with the usual Sulez warmth and friendliness whilst Cassie greeted her with a curt nod and "Hi." Before shuffling over to some racks of dresses to rifle through. Emilia, Mae and Grace stayed at the centre of the shop, making small talk. Emilia asked Mae and Grace what they were looking for in their dresses, which sparked the conversation about Grace not attending the dance.

"I can't go." Grace said, downcast.

Emilia's face dropped slightly. "Oh, I'm sorry."

Grace shrugged. "Don't worry about it. You weren't to know." She mumbled.

"Do you mind if I ask why?"

Grace hesitated. "I . . . I, uh, don't have anyone to go with." Grace finally settled on. "Couldn't find a date."

Emilia cocked her head to the side. "Well, you don't have to go with a date. If you want, you could just go with us—we're going as a group . . . well, sorta." Emilia's eyes flickered to Mae. Mae looked down at her feet blushing. She didn't catch the inquisitive look Grace gave her.

"Um . . . I'll think about it." Grace answered, awkwardly.

"OK." Emilia nodded and then excused herself to join Cassie, who had been lingering nearby looking at some dresses.

"What was that about?" Grace suddenly said to Mae. "Do you have a date to Homecoming?"

Mae, pretending not to hear Grace, cleared her throat. "I-I'll think I-I'll st-start looking for a dr-dress."

After forty-five minutes of looking through dresses, the four of them decided to try on some of the dresses they had picked out. Even Grace had let Emilia convince her into trying a dress on. The dress was a lavender colour that was loose, to conceal the bump, with a satin sash around the middle. It was probably the only dress in the store that wasn't tightly fitted or shaped in a way that would show her small bump she now had. She and Emilia tried their dresses on first—Grace trying on the lavender dress (which, with no surprise, looked gorgeous on her) and Emilia trying on a monochrome dress that she didn't quite like as much as it didn't suit her. Whilst Emilia changed her into her second dress, Grace stood before the floor-length mirror, rotating her body to look at all angles of her dress. Cassie and Mae were sitting on the seats, waiting for their turn (there was only two fitting rooms), and watching Grace examine herself .

"I'm going to go." Grace suddenly said with a determined look on her face. "I'm going to go to Homecoming."—Grace turned to Mae and said, without thinking—"I mean why not? This will probably be the last high school dance I could go to." Grace glanced to Cassie and then, realising her mistake, she mumbled something and then went back into the fitting room. Despite the slip, Cassie said or asked nothing.

Eventually, they had all decided on the dresses. Grace, of course, had decided on the lavender dress; Emilia had decided on a dark pink dress with a V-neck and a flowing skirt with chiffon layers; Cassie's dress was a black dress with a sweetheart neckline and short sleeves. It was probably the first time Mae had ever seen Cassie in a dress and Cassie felt completely out of place, but looked pretty nonetheless. As for Mae's dress, hers was white—a colour Mae would never usually go for but, under insistence of Grace and Emilia, Mae bought it. The dress was too her knees (where she liked it) and slim fitting, showing off her the curves that she had. She didn't look half as good as Cassie, Grace or how she was sure Caroline, Bonnie or Elena would look, but she looked good regardless, and knowing she had a dress made Homecoming a little less daunting.

_October 10__th__ 2009_

October 10th not only marked the day of Homecoming, but also the day of Caroline's 17th birthday. On that Friday morning, Mae woke up to the smell of pancakes filling the house. It had been a tradition in Mae's household that, whenever it was someone's birthday, pancakes were made for breakfast. Liz brought this tradition to their household when Mae moved in. Unfortunately Liz couldn't quite make pancakes like her Mom ever could, but they were still good anyway. In the kitchen, where Liz was cooking the pancakes (in her dressing gown for she had taken the day off for Caroline's birthday), Caroline was tapping away on her phone that was unmistakably new by the opened packages on the kitchen table and her old phone next to it. Caroline hadn't even looked up when Mae had walked into the room, but Liz greeted her as usual, taking in the beautifully wrapped present in Mae's hands.

"Happy Birthday Caroline." Mae announced to her cousin, in a soft, careful voice. Caroline looked up and saw the wrapped present in Mae's hands. Her thin eyebrow raised and she gave Mae a look that said '_really?_'. Normally Mae gave Caroline a card and some chocolate in return to the small card Mae usually received from Caroline every year. This year, she had decided to do something different. When Caroline took the present, with an element of reluctance, Mae stepped back and watched Caroline open the present with her bottom lip caught between her teeth. Liz had also stopped making pancakes to watch. Caroline pulled on the big pink ribbon and let it fall, before pulling apart the wrapping paper. Inside the box, Caroline pulled out a pretty pastel pink and blue scarf. When picking them out, Mae had played on the fact Caroline wore a lot of scarves recently.

"Thanks." Caroline muttered. She took one look at the scarf then shoved it back into the box, closed the lid and then shoved the box away, before turning her attention back to the new phone in her hand.

That evening, Mae had arrived back home from school (which had been long) and jumped straight into the shower. For the majority of the school day, the whole campus was alive with the talk of Homecoming this evening, which only made Mae's nerves worse. She had been suffering with butterflies all day and seeing Ethan at lunch made things even worse. She feared something would happen that would make the night turn into a disaster and the last thing she wanted was to make her first date to turn out as a disaster. But she tried not think of that, period, as she readied herself for the dance; she scrubbed herself clean, washed her hair, and got out of the shower, lathering her body in lotion and cream that would make her body smooth and fresh-smelling.

While she waited for her hair to towel dry, she did her make-up at her mirror with just a towel wrapped around her body. She put the slightest dusting of powder over her cheeks and some concealer under her eyes and where she needed it most. Using the eyeliner, she lined the waterline of her large eyes and around her eyes, before putting on a generous layer of mascara on her lashes. As for her cheeks, she put on some bronzer knowing that in photos she had the tendency to look pasty and on her lips she put on some red lipstick. She sprayed it all with some setting mist and then went onto doing her hair, which—for the first time in a long time—she left down to her waist. She plugged in her old and dusty straightener from the back of her closet and proceeded in straightening her hair down her back. Afterwards, she slipped on her dress and she was ready to go.

Caroline and her date—some guy from the football team—were already ready and standing in the foyer when Mae left her bedroom to wait for Ethan to arrive. Caroline had gave her a sour look when Liz complimented her, and quickly brought the attention back to her again. Caroline was wearing a hot pink dress and as if that wasn't eye-catching enough, she also had a tiara nestled in her curly blonde locks. Caroline had shoved the camera into Liz's hand and made her take some photos of her and her date, no doubt to put on Facebook or whatever social network site she uses to keep up to date with her popularity.

Sometime around Caroline and her date's mini photo-shoot session—Caroline had now made her date take photos of her behind the white wall of the foyer—Ethan had arrived dressed smartly in a black tux and slim black tie. He looked good, or at least Mae thought so—Caroline's lip had turned up as soon as Ethan walked through the entrance way. Ethan seemed to ignore Caroline though, and spoke mostly to Liz and Mae. Liz seemed tenser than usual as she spoke with Ethan; she didn't show it quiet obviously—but Mae could tell from the tightness around her eyes and lips as she smiled—which made Mae wonder whether Liz didn't like Ethan.

Mae was forced to endure Liz take some photos of her with Ethan on Liz's camera and then even with Caroline and her date. After that, Caroline had quickly pushed her date out the door and Mae followed suit after assuring Liz she wouldn't be back late. Ethan and Liz made their way to Ethan's truck at the bottom of the sidewalk, only it wasn't Ethan's struck. It was the Mercedes car that Mae had spotted the first time she had gone to the Sulez residence.

Ethan smiled sheepishly when Mae looked at the Mercedes in confusion. "It's my Dad's car." Mae looked at Ethan. "He didn't seem to think my car was appropriate for a high school dance. So we've swapped for the night."

Mae gave him a weak smile. "It's a nice car."

Ethan shrugged. "I guess. I like my truck much more." He then opened the car door for Mae, gesturing for her to get inside. Mae tried not to look shocked as he did so and slipped into the car door. Ethan gave her that all too familiar grin when Mae thanked him with a blush and a stutter. Ethan dashed over to his side, after closing her car door and slipped inside. "You know you don't have to be so nervous." Ethan said, as he put the key into the ignition. Mae blushed at the fact he had spotted how nervous she was. "This isn't anything serious—just a high school dance. We can just see it as going as friends if it would make you more comfortable . . ."

Mae ducked her head and couldn't find it in her to answer, but Ethan didn't wait for one. He set the car alive and soon they were sailing down the road and in the direction of Mystic Falls High.

When they arrived, the first thing they spotted was the fairy-lights wrapped around the trees near the main building. Ethan parked the car just as Mae received a text from Grace. She was already in the gymnasium and was with Emilia and Cassie. They were waiting for them by the drinks station. Mae passed this onto Ethan who nodded and said we could go straight to meeting them. They headed to the gymnasium through the front entrance, and through the long lit corridors. The corridors weren't empty, people walked ahead and behind them, all dressed in their high school dance attire. Mae was relieved to see she didn't stick out like a sore thumb in her white dress—others were dressed similarly too.

"Have I said that you look great tonight?" Ethan said, before they reached the gymnasium. Mae's mouth went dry. She suddenly felt like she was sitting in a sauna. She probably looked like a fool, looking at him like she was with dumbstruck eyes. Ethan's lips twitched into a smile. "Well you do—really great, even. You should wear your hair like that more often. It suits you."

Mae ducked her head, blushing. "Thank you." she croaked. "Y-You look pretty great too."

And then he gave her that cheesy grin that was bright enough to fuel a whole town with light. "Thanks. Shall we?" they had stopped outside the gymnasium. Ethan gestured towards it, with a elbow outstretched for her to take. It made Mae think of Damon and how he had done the exact same thing to her when they had been heading to the cemetery. Pushing that memory out of mind, she cautiously hooked her hand around his crook of elbow. "I'm not make of glass, y'know." He winked, teasingly. Mae gave him a embarrassed smile and gripped him a little harder. They then walked into the gymnasium, which had been decorated for the special occasion.

Mae knew Caroline had been the one who organised this and she actually did a great job. The streamers were positioned teasefully on the wall and the lights dotted around the room emitted a pale bluish glow around the room. The disco ball above reflected silver light down on the room, and there was a DJ positioned at the far end of the gymnasium, near where the drinks where. Ethan led Mae to the back of the room, where the drinks station was. As so told by Grace's text, the three girls were already waiting. When they approached, Grace looked slightly relieved to see Mae approach them, and smiled at her in a way which said she was glad she had arrived. Mae didn't seem to think that Grace had any problem with Emilia or Cassie, but perhaps wasn't quite used to them as Grace was with her.

"You're here!" Emilia announced over the loud music, with a grin. Cassie was silent beside her, staring at the two of them. She looked pretty with her crimson waves half-up and half-down, and smoky black make-up around her eyes. Usually, like Mae, Cassie didn't wear much make-up. She didn't need it though, she was pretty enough as she was. Mae looked at Ethan thoughtfully. Did Ethan ever notice how pretty Cassie was? She doubted he was oblivious to it, that's for sure.

As Emilia and Ethan began to talk, Mae turned to Grace. She also looked amazing. Mae decided to take a chance and tell her that. Grace's spirits seem to raise when Mae told her that. "Thank you!" Grace said over the noise. "You look great too. I love what you've done with your . . ."—she trailed off, spotting something over Mae's shoulder. Mae looked around, over her shoulder, and saw Tyler Lockwood enter the gymnasium where Ethan and Mae had, with the same cheerleader from before, wrapped over his body.

"Are you OK?" Mae asked tentatively.

Grace snapped her eyes back to Mae's. "Yeah, of course. Why wouldn't I be?" she said, obviously lying.

They spent a good time around the sidelines of the dance-floor, watching as it filled up with couples and groups of dateless girls and boys alike. They all made small talk, but having an in-depth conversation proved difficult from the booming music that was playing in the room, meaning quite a few minutes were spent standing in silence people-watching. Mae had spotted Caroline once or twice, dancing on the dace-floor, or circulating the crowds and taking pictures with people—practically dragging around the professional photographer that was hired for the event. She had also spotted Elena and Bonnie, whom were both looked flawless (Elena especially), however whenever she saw Elena she saw her without Stefan. Had the two of them broken up?

"Cassie!" Mae heard Ethan shout from behind her, breaking her out of her reverie. Mae and Grace looked around from where they stood to see Ethan, Emilia and Cassie gathered around the drinks station. Mae couldn't hear what they were saying now. Mae and Grace wondered over to hear what was being said: ". . . Why the hell did you do that? You could get caught!" Mae spied around Ethan shoulder, Cassie slipping a metal flask back into her clutch bag. Mae didn't know whether to be unsurprised or amused that Cassie had spiked the punch.

"What? I'm just creating entertainment. I'm bored of watching these sober bunch of losers."

"Oh, and when the teachers want to start searching bags after drunk people start violently vomiting, then what will you do?"

Cassie shrugged. "I'll slip it into Mae's bag. They wouldn't believe a precious, sweet, innocent Mae Fell would have done it." even over the music, Mae could hear the bitterness in her tone.

Ethan suddenly leant forward and sniffed. "Cassie . . ."—he exclaimed stepping back—"Have you been drinking?"

Cassie rolled her eyes. "_Obv_iously." She drawled.

Ethan turned to Emilia, who looked just as flabbergasted. "I had _no_ idea."

"C'mon, let's sober her up before she makes a scene." An irritated Ethan began to pull Cassie out of the gymnasium, Emilia following close behind, obviously in search of water, leaving just Mae and Grace behind.

Grace turned to look at Mae and gave her a small smile. "Successful date you're having." Mae tried not to wince at those words. Grace continued: "Sounds like someone can't stand that you were the one who got asked to the Homecoming Dance."

Mae snapped her eyes to Grace. "N-No . . . Y-You don't mean . . ."

"C'mon,"—Grace exclaimed loudly—"Don't tell me you haven't noticed."

_Noticed what?_

"Grace." a voice said. Mae and Grace turned their heads to see Elena approach. "You look great. You too, Mae."

Mae didn't say anything, but rather let Grace do the talking. "Where's Stefan?" Grace asked, looking over Elena's shoulder in search of Stefan.

Elena's eyes shifted. "He couldn't make it." And then the topic of conversation was shifted.

Elena wanted to check up on Grace. Mae half-listened to what the two sisters was saying, but was momentarily distracted when she spotted Ethan walking back into the gymnasium and towards them, running a hand through his dark coffee black hair. "Hey," Ethan said as he returned. Elena and Grace paused their conversation. "Sorry about that . . . Emilia's with Cassie now in the bathroom . . . y'know." Mae simply nodded in return. "Do you . . . do you want to dance, maybe?" Ethan said, slightly hopefully.

A feeling of involuntary panic came over her. "Um . . ." she stammered, looking around to Elena and Grace.

Grace shrugged. "It's fine. I can stay here with Elena until you finish."

Mae looked at Elena, who nodded, she then looked back at Grace and then, finally, at Ethan. It looked as if there was no getting out of this one. "Uh . . . O-OK." The two walked onto the edge of the dance-floor where they turned and faced each other silently for some moments, before awkwardly grasping onto each other. Ethan placed his hand gently on her waist, the other in hers, and Mae placed her other free hand on his forearm.

This was her first ever dance with someone else and her entire body was as stiff as a board.

"Mae,"—Ethan suddenly said after a few uncomfortable moments of shifting side to side to the music—"I feel like I should be apologising." Mae watched him silently as he explained. "I haven't exactly been the best date so far." Ethan mumbled, his dark brown eyes surveying hers, making Mae feel more nervous than she perhaps should. "The truth is, Mae . . ."—

"_Jeremy!_" a scream rang out across the gymnasium. Ethan and Mae pulled apart and looked towards the source of noise. It took several moments for Mae to see what was going on, but when she did, she felt a sudden rush of nausea come over her. Tyler Lockwood was on the ground, being pinned and beaten by Jeremy, to the point where blood was rushing from his nose and mouth. Elena and Grace had both been the ones to scream their brother's name, both watching in absolute horror as Jeremy beats Tyler mercilessly, until teachers come running from all directions to pull Jeremy off a bloodied Tyler. Even with Jeremy being restrained, he still put up a good fight and certainly wasn't finished.

"You sick fuck!"—Jeremy screamed—"My _sister_?!" Tyler was now being helped up by Matt and Elena. "Do you have _any_ idea what you've _done_?!"

Elena suddenly became aware of the forming crowd and said to Jeremy, firmly: "Jeremy . . . that's _enough_." Her voice was stern and her eyes were filled with warning.

"No, Elena!" Jeremy bellowed back. "It's not _enough_."—he turned his dark angry eyes back to Tyler—"You've _ruined _her _life_, you know that right? . . . But of course you don't"—He scoffed—"Because you don't give a fuck do you? A week ago my sister was in _hospital_ because of _you_. She was suffering because of _you_. Where were you, asshole?! Where were you while she was lying in a hospital bed?" Jeremy flailed against the teacher's arms, restraining him. He shot a glare towards the cheerleader Tyler had arrived with, who was now cowering away. "_Fucking _her? Was that where you were?"—

"Jeremy . . ."

—"You're a dick Tyler—a _dick_! You know what? Fuck you, _dick_. You're not going within ten feet of my sister and I don't care if she's carrying your kid. You're going to keep the _Hell_ away from her. My sister _and_ her baby are better off without you." Jeremy finally finished.

Silence.

The whole gymnasium was silent. The music had somehow stopped and no-one was talking any longer. Everyone was watching, everyone was listening, everyone had heard every word that came from Jeremy's mouth. Even a pin drop could have been heard through this silence.

The silence was broken by an ugly, gut-wrenching sob. Eyes turned on Grace. There was no secret anymore, it was out. After tonight, everyone will know the truth.

Grace spun on the spot and ran out of the gymnasium in a flurry of lavender and brown, her footsteps echoing on the gym floorboards, and the sound of her cries circulating the room. As the gym door swung open and shut, Elena wasn't far behind. The sound of Elena's voice calling Grace's name from the corridor outside was the last that was heard of them before they vanished behind the gym door that shut behind the two Gilbert girls.

And then it was silent again.

**Okay, so this chapter was a bit shit, I'm not entirely happy with it but it's the best I could come up with. If you've read the AN at the top, you'll by now know that I'm changing things around with the timeline. I like my stories to be able to flow, and the dates to make sense, and I can't stand it if the plotline doesn't match the time frame. Thus why I added the Homecoming Dance to the story. I hope you liked it nonetheless. I felt it was perhaps lacking in places & I could have done some different Mae interactions but I also became acutely aware of the fact this chapter was becoming crazy long. I will be surprised if any of you have read to the end. **

**Nonetheless, I would love to hear your thoughts on how the story is going thus far. **

**Thank you to all those who have reviewed, it's so kind of you and I enjoy reading them—the good and the bad (not that there's been any particularly bad reviews). **

**And, addressing to the comments about Klaus' love interests, I will not be putting Klaus with Caroline (or at least I have no plan to). I'm not a massive fan of Klaroline, primarily because I feel they just don't blend well together. Maybe it's just me, but I don't feel the chemistry between them. Sorry if me saying that upsets any of you guys. **

**As for 'Delena', my thoughts are undecided upon that. I don't particularly ship any couple on TVD (I watch for the sake of the show), but I am quite impartial to Stelena because it reminds me of S1. Ah, the good old times. **

**Ha-Ha.**

**Next chapter will be: Lost Girls. A few days/maybe a week has passed since Homecoming & Elena (after avoiding Stefan for so long) has finally decided to confront Stefan about what he is. **


	8. The Necklace

_October 10__th__ 2009_

The glowing digital clock on the sleek Mercedes dashboard told Mae it was gone eleven thirty when they had eventually arrived outside the Forbes residence. The windows of the house glowed through the blanket of darkness settled over the street, informing Mae that Liz was still awake and awaiting for her and Caroline's safe return. Since what had happened at Homecoming involving Grace, Mae and Ethan had left the gymnasium in search of Cassie and Emilia shortly after Grace and Elena's disappearance, once the awkward silence had been broken by the return of music and the chatter between people. All the talk was on Grace, Jeremy and Tyler for the rest of the night.

Cassie was still drunk when Ethan and Mae had found them, sitting in one of the Math classrooms, with her cheek pressed against the table. Emilia was sitting beside her, running her fingers through her hair.

"Hey," Emilia murmured as Ethan and Mae slipped into the Math classroom, the door shut with a 'click'. "You OK?" she asked, when she spotted their expressions.

Ethan glanced at Mae, obviously shooting her a look that was apprehensive upon whether what had just happened should be spoken about. "Everything's fine." Ethan eventually settled upon. He then turned to look at Cassie. "How is she?" he asked. Cassie didn't seem to have noticed their presence in the room, her eyes remained shut, making it appear that she was fast asleep. Emilia shrugged her shoulders, with a hopeless look on her face. Apparently they had to leave the bathroom quickly when a teacher had came in; they've been in this class-room ever since. Ethan sighed and walked forward to Cassie. He crouched himself down beside her chair and began to run his fingers along her bare arms. Meanwhile, Mae watched on from afar. "Cass?" he whispered.

Cassie let out a soft groan. Her lips parted, exhaling a long breath. "Eth?"

"It's me." Ethan murmured.

Cassie cracked one of her eyes open, to look at him. "'Llo." She slurred.

"Hi." Ethan replied, with an amused smile on his lips. "How are you feeling?"

Cassie opened her other eye. "Fan-fucking-_fastic_." She exclaimed in a drunken tone. Ethan rolled his eyes and snickered. "Can you take me home?"

Ethan sighed. "Sure," Ethan replied. And then, as if remembering something—or someone—he looked over his shoulder at Mae. "You don't mind do you?" Mae shook her head quickly. Cassie really looked like she needed to get home.

"I can take you home if you like,"—Emilia piped up, voice soft—"Cassie drove me here. I can drop you off in Cassie's car and then meet you at Cassie's place." Emilia looked at Ethan.

Mae was about to open her mouth, to accept the offer, when Ethan suddenly spoke up. "No,"—Ethan said quickly—"I'll drop Mae off on my way taking Cassie home. You can drive straight to Cassie's and wait for me there. Perhaps it would be best if someone warned Julie before her drunken daughter comes stumbling through the door." Emilia looked a bit suspicious to Ethan's insistence but agreed with a nod nonetheless. Ethan looked back at Cassie. "Oh crap,"—Ethan mumbled—"She's fallen back asleep." Ethan tried shaking her arm to wake her up, Cassie didn't respond. "C'mon Cass, wake up." He reached up to brush a piece of hair from out of her eyes and then ran his fingers across her cheek. Cassie responded to this, cracking her eyes open again.

Cassie looked at Ethan cross-eyed and mumbled, almost incoherently: "Is this a dream?"

Ethan scoffed. "Nope, but you're going to wish it was once your Mom gets her hands on you." Cassie groaned. "C'mon, lazy bones, time to get moving." With some struggle, Ethan and Emilia pulled Cassie out of the chair. Mae, feeling helpless, stepped forward to help. "It's OK,"—Ethan said when she tried to help—"We're going to need someone to help open doors and check if the coast is clear. We can't have any teachers stumbling on us."

The route from the Math class to the parking lot wasn't particularly difficult; it just took a little longer than anticipated. They had to take a little detour when Cassie was about to vomit. When they had made it to the car, Emilia took Cassie's keys and left. Mae helped Ethan put Cassie into the backseat, before getting into the passenger seat. The drive to the Forbes residence was slow and not to mention silent. Mae stared at the hands in her lap or the out of the window, watching the shadowed scenery pass by. When she did give herself the courage to look at Ethan, the three out of four times, Mae had spotted him looking at Cassie through the driver's mirror in concern.

Mae felt like the entire evening had been a joke. She felt like she was an idiot not to have noticed the feelings between Cassie and Ethan until tonight—correction: not even tonight. She didn't even realise what Grace had been insinuating before everything happened. Realisation had only dawned over Mae when they were in the Math classroom and Mae was watching her date caress another girl. Obviously Mae had been too quick to judge; Ethan couldn't like her—at least, not without liking Cassie as well. Mae may have been a fool not to have noticed the feelings between them until now, but she be stupid to ignore them now. Because now she had noticed, the connection between them was all she could see and she knew it had been there all along.

Mae couldn't have been more relieved when they had arrived outside the Forbes household. She just wanted to be in her bedroom, wallowing over everything that had happened this evening.

"Th-thanks for the ride." Mae said, when the car pulled to a stop. Without looking in Ethan's direction, she unbuckled herself from the seat and slipped outside. When she hadn't noticed was Ethan getting out too. "What are you doing?" she said, aloud.

Ethan walked round from his side of the car, to where she was standing. "I'm walking you to the door." Even in the dark, his smile was bright.

Mae looked over her shoulder to where Cassie was propped up against the window. It was too dark—Mae couldn't tell whether she was awake or not. "What about Cassie? You shouldn't leave her . . ."

Ethan snorted and said: "This isn't the first time Cassie's pulled a stunt like that. She'll be fine so long as she doesn't puke on my Dad's leather interior." Ethan placed a hand on Mae's lower back and began to steer Mae up the pathway towards the porch. "I'm sorry,"—Ethan murmured—"Trust Cassie to pull a stunt like this." Mae looked at him to see he was shaking his head. She knew he was saying it in a joking manner, but Mae couldn't muster a laugh from within, because consciously Mae knew this had happened because of her. Cassie never would have gotten drunk if Mae hadn't gone to Homecoming with Ethan.

They had reached the front door Mae paused and turned to face Ethan. "I'll . . . see y-you Monday?" she said in half-question.

Ethan nodded. "Yeah, we won't be coming to the grill this weekend. Mom and Dad have this family thing planned." he shrugged casually. Through the darkness, Mae could just about spot the apprehensive look on his face. "Look . . ."—Ethan reached up to rub the back of his neck—". . . I know that, er, tonight hasn't gone _quite _as planned—or at least, how I planned it—but I . . ."—he inhaled slowly—". . . I just w-wanted to say that I enjoyed going to Homecoming tonight . . . with you." Ethan nervously mumbled. "And if you'd like to, y'know, do it again sometime . . . like, go see a movie or something, then—well—just say."

Mae's eyes flickered towards Mr. Sulez's car. "I . . . I-I d-don't k-know." She replied.

Ethan blinked and it took a moment for Mae's words to sink in. "OK,"—he mumbled, suddenly chestfallen—"Can I ask why?"

Mae had no idea whether Ethan had any constellation about Cassie and her feelings for him, or even his feelings for her, either way Mae wasn't going to be the one to tell him. "I-I j-just don't think I'm _ready_." Mae looked down at her feet, awkwardly. "Until only a month ago, I-I didn't e-even have friends let alone a-a-a _date_ to Homecoming. I hadn't even gone to Homecoming until tonight." Mae spluttered. "All of this is really new to me, and I think I-I need to take things at my own pace so I that I can a-adjust to everything." Mae finally looked up at Ethan through her eyes. Just like she anticipated, he looked pitiful. "Y-You're a g-great guy, Ethan."

"Thanks,"—Ethan shuffled on his feet—"And I understand, really. Maybe I asked a little too soon . . ."

Of course he would think this was _his _fault, Mae thought to herself, fighting the urge to roll her eyes. "N-No,"—Mae shook her head stubbornly—"Don't say that. I'm _happy_ that y-you asked me." And it was true, she was happy; because, despite everything, it lead her to see what she hadn't been seeing. God knows how long it would have taken her to realise if she hadn't gone to Homecoming. At least now she _knew_. And maybe, now, she could find a way to make things right with her and Cassie. "I-It's given me a lot of prospective."

Ethan gave her a weak smile. "Still friends?" Mae was relieved to hear him say that. She smiled and nodded. "Great." The enthusiasm in his voice was back. "OK, well, I think I've left Cassie alone long enough . . . I'll see you Monday." And then he bent down and pressed a kiss on her cheek. As soon as his lips left her cheek, her entire face felt like it was on fire and her breath was caught in her throat. She was glad that it was dark, so that Ethan couldn't see her blush the deep shade of red she knew she was right now. "Bye."

"B-Bye."

And then Ethan was jogging down the porch-steps, back to the car.

When Mae walked through the front door, flustered and disorientated, she spotted Liz leaning against the threshold to the living room with a slight smirk on her face. "Good night?"

Mae shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so . . ."

Liz didn't try to hide her amusement. "I've actually got something for you." she then reached and pulled something out of her pocket. It was a small box.

Mae looked at the box carefully. "But it's Caroline's birthday . . ."

Liz chuckled. "What Caroline doesn't see, she won't know. Here, take it." Mae walked forward and took the box from her hands. She gingerly pried the box open and looked inside. Inside it was a beautiful silver locket with a rose design on the front. Mae recognised the locket instantly as her mothers. "I've been meaning to give it you for a while. I planned to give it to you for your eighteenth birthday, because that was how old your mother was when she was given this, but I decided it had waited long enough. It's meant to be yours." Mae was staring at the locket in her hands in complete and utter awe. Slowly, she turned it onto its side and clicked open the locket. Inside was a picture of her and her family—taken the year they died. "I left the other side blank. I'm sure you'll find a way to fill it."

Mae looked up and said in the most sincere voice she could muster: "Thank you." her voice shook from the emotions inside her.

Liz smiled at her warmly. "You're welcome."

After that, Mae headed off to her bedroom. She pulled herself out the heels, dress, jewellery and washed the make-up from her face. Once she was in her bed, under the sheets, and in her nightwear she lay on her back and stared at the necklace. So many memories came rushing back at her as she held and admired this necklace. Her mother never took it off. It was a surprise that the necklace even managed to survive the fire. She was just thankful it did—she now had a piece of her mother that she could take with her everywhere. Mae's lips stretched into a watery smile. She brought the locket down to her lips and kissed it.

"I love you Mom." She whispered.

_October 13__th__ 2009_

Two days later, Monday, and Mae was standing in front of the mirror in her bedroom admiring the necklace around her neck. It was paired with her usual school attire—jeans, a long-sleeved white top with a jacket and a sweater. A few things had happened this weekend: 1) Mae had spent her Saturday evening at the Gilbert residence after her shift at the grill; and 2) Mae had finally bought herself a car. It was a black Volkswagen Beetle. Something she had no intention of picking, but when she sat in it at the dealership, she instantly fell in love. By finally having a car, it meant that Mae was finally able to drive to school for the first time. For the first time in forever, Mae was excited to get to school.

But there was someone who wasn't excited to get to school, and that person was Grace. Today was the day she returned to school after her two weeks absence, and it was also the day she faced the entire school population after the incident at Homecoming last Friday. There was no doubt that every student in Mystic Falls High School would know by now; news travels around MFHS like wildfire. And considering Grace was a Gilbert child, it was high likely that the majority of Mystic Falls knew by now. Mae sighed to herself, wondering how exactly the Lockwoods would be taking this news. She doubted Mayor Lockwood would be happy to hear his son had impregnated a girl before he had even graduated high school.

Mae had offered to give Grace a lift to school today, but Grace had denied for Elena had already offered. The entire weekend for Grace had been spent in Elena's company. Mae knew that Grace constantly said Elena was overly mothering, but to Mae, she sounded like everything Mae would look for in an older sister. Grace was lucky to have Elena in high school with her to help her through this. When Mae had first returned back to school after her family died, Mae had wished she had her brother by her side to help her through it. Mae's fingers immediately retracted to her locket, brushing her finger over the rose design, knowing there was a picture in there of her brother within.

Mae left for school a little later than usual, considering she no longer had to walk. She slipped into her new car, taking a long second to relinquish over the new car smell, before igniting the engine and beginning her first ever drive to school. It was surprising how at home driving was for Mae. She enjoyed every turn of the wheel, every acceleration and pressing of the break. It felt as if she had been driving for years.

When she arrived at school, finding a parking slot was harder than she had readily anticipated. She knew a lot of people drove to school, but she had never realised how many pupils at MFHS owned cars. After driving up and down the parking lot several times, Mae finally found a spot and parked. Much to her surprise, it was exactly next to Ethan's truck. And stepping out of the truck was Ethan, Emilia and Cassie.

"Well look here!" Ethan acknowledged Mae was a smile as she stepped out of the car. "Nice wheels, Mae."

Mae blushed slightly. "Thanks." She muttered.

"It suits you." Emilia approved with a nod and smile. "Did you get it this weekend?"

Mae nodded and the four of them began heading up to the building. Mae didn't fail to notice that Cassie hadn't said a word to her. It wasn't unusual for Cassie not to say anything to her, but after what had happened on Friday, Mae was more alert to it. As they walked into the main building, Emilia and Ethan filled Mae in on their weekend. Apparently they had gone to Virginia Beach with their parents for their family weekend. From the sounds of things, they had loads of fun. Emilia even showed Mae some photos from her phone she had taken, which lead to the leading question upon whether Mae had Facebook. Mae shook her head and Emilia commented upon how she should get one.

"Sure," Mae replied, though she had no true intention of getting it. And then, along the corridor, Mae spotted Grace. She was at her locker, looking as if she was trying really hard to disappear into it. She was alone, also, which made her wonder where Elena was. "I-I'll see you guys at lunch." Ethan and Emilia nodded and said their goodbyes, Cassie merely looked at her. Mae sighed, trying not to be affected by Cassie's behaviour, and headed over to where Grace was. "Hey." She muttered, pulling at the sleeves of her jacket. Grace looked up from her locket. Her eyes looked relieved to see who had spoken to her.

"Hi." Grace replied, glancing over her shoulder at something, before quickly looking away. Mae looked around to see a group of girls—or cheerleaders more specifically—looking directly at Grace as they passed by. Their whisperings began as soon as they walked passed them and Grace turned her head to watch them go. As soon as they had melted into the crowds, Grace was back to sorting through her locker.

"You alright?" Mae asked cautiously. Suddenly it felt like a stupid question.

Luckily Grace didn't act upon the stupid question; she passed her a small, weak smile that was obviously forced. "I will be." Another group looked Grace's way. Grace caught one of the group member's eyes and looked down at her feet. "I can't stand the way they're looking at me," Grace muttered. "I don't know how I'm going to survive lunch. Maybe I'll spend the whole hour hiding in the bathrooms." Grace dryly humoured.

"Why don't you have lunch with me?" Mae offered suddenly, out of the blue. Grace looked up at her. "I eat lunch in the library with Ethan, Emilia and Cassie. It's quiet—hardly anyone is there—and the librarian never checks on us so we're free to eat, as long as we hide it on the way past her desk." It all came out so quick, Mae wasn't sure if Grace caught it all.

Grace furrowed her eyebrows. "You wouldn't mind if I had lunch with you?" Mae shook her head slowly. "And the others—they won't mind either?" Grace pressed. Mae shook her head again—the only problem she could think of was Cassie, but Cassie didn't seem to take to Grace badly at Homecoming or at dress shopping. She merely acted like she did at the first football game: like Mae wasn't there. Grace exhaled. "Thanks . . . that would be great."

Mae and Grace walked together until they had to separate in different ways. Mae's first class was Math and when she arrived, she was the first one there, as always. She placed herself in her usual seat and silently waited for the class to start. People slowly began piling into the room once the bell rang and when the room was half-full, Mae heard the chair scrap beside her. She turned her head to see Stefan placing herself down beside her. Mae hadn't seen Stefan once at the Homecoming dance, and had assumed that he just didn't come.

"Hey." Stefan said to her when he placed himself down in his face.

Mae gave him a closed-lip smile. "H-Hi."

Stefan returned the smile, only his was wider and oozed confidence. Mae couldn't help but spot the similarities and differences between Stefan and his brother. Although Mae hadn't gotten to know Stefan as well as she had thought she had gotten to know Damon, she felt that she could safely say that Stefan was nothing like Damon personality wise. "Good weekend?" he asked her, friendly. Another thing that Stefan seemed to possess and Damon did not: friendliness. Damon had been all about arrogance, Mae knew that now.

Mae shrugged, as if to silently say 'it was OK'. "You?"

He shrugged in return, in slight humour, and Mae cracked another smile. "Did you go to Homecoming?" Mae nodded. Stefan looked slightly surprised. "I thought you weren't the high school dance kind of girl?"

Mae blushed. "I-I'm n-not."

Stefan chuckled. "I'm only teasing." He winked.

There was a moment of silence between the two of them. Mae looked down at the ends of her hair, braided as usual, before asking suddenly: "D-Did you spend t-the weekend with your brother?"

Mae must have said something wrong, because Stefan's face suddenly dropped into a frown. "You know Damon?" Mae felt tempted to point out the fact that she lived with Caroline. Instead, she just nodded. "Oh . . . you've talked . . . a lot?" he slowly asked, questionably.

Mae shrugged. "On occasion." She murmured, with a slight frown.

"He's not a good person." Stefan's said suddenly, as if in warning.

Mae licked her lips and nodded again. "I know." She whispered, frowning, and Stefan's eyebrows rose. "H-Has he left town?" she wondered.

Stefan nodded slowly. _Good_, she thought. There was another pause of silence between them and then: "You're necklace." Stefan murmured. Mae looked at him to see his eyebrows furrowed and his lips slightly opened in an expression of shock. Mae watched him cautiously as he evaluated the locket. "May I . . .?" he indicated towards the locket. Mae hesitated but then nodded. Stefan slowly reached towards it. He had barely brushed his finger over the rose before suddenly his finger snapped back, hissing and holding his finger like he had been burnt.

"Are you OK?" Mae stuttered in concern, her eyes wide.

Stefan didn't look at her, his head lowered. "Yeah . . . Yeah, I'm fine. Just . . . electric shock. . ."

Mae had never had an electric shock that hurt that much. Mae opened her mouth to ask if he was OK again, but then the teacher walked through the door and the lesson had begun.

_October 14__th__ 2009_

Stefan Salvatore placed the now-empty crystal-cut glass of liquor onto the table. Night had long fallen over the Salvatore Boarding House, and Stefan remained in the armchair across from the roaring fire in the living room. Somewhere upstairs, Stefan could hear Zach Salvatore readying himself for bed, but from the basement below there was complete silence. Stefan knew for a fact he was still down there though, growing weaker and weaker by the minute. Stefan ran his tongue over his lips. Soon the hallucinations would begin and the basement would no longer be filled with silence. Buried deep in the pit of his stomach, Stefan knew he felt guilty for what he was doing to his brother, but his head knew that this was something was long time coming. And if Stefan wanted to keep Elena and the rest of Mystic Falls safe from Damon's harm, then it was something he had to do.

But there was something, something that has been playing on Stefan's mind all night, ever since he had been sitting in the classroom with Mae Fell that morning. Something he knew he needed answers for and the only person that could answer those questions was laying locked in a cellar below. Stefan's eyes flickered up towards the clock, realising that it was well past midnight, which meant another night had gone by without Elena contacting her. Stefan reached up with one hand and ran it through his cropped brown hair. He forcefully pushed any thoughts of Elena out of his mind by pulling himself out of he armchair and slowly walked towards the door that lead to the basement. He pulled the door open and then descended down the stairs, his footsteps echoing through the silence. He was sure Damon could have already heard his approach though.

When his foot reached the basement floor, he slowly walked down the narrow corridor to the final cellar. And there, through the gaps between the bars, he spotted Damon Salvatore lying on his back on the cellar floor, staring up into oblivion. Moonlight streamed through the small window in the ceiling, and cast Damon in an eerie white spotlight. The moonlight reflected the sheen of sweat covering his skin. And from where Stefan stood, he could see his lips were dry and cracking in places.

"Come to watch me desiccate, brother? How un-saintly of you . . ." his voice was cracked and weak, portraying what this lack of blood has done to me.

Stefan lowered his head and sighed. "You know I never would have done this to you, Damon, unless necessary."

Damon turned his head to the side to give him a weak smirk. "Of course." He sarcastically said.

Stefan watched his brother for a moment and then, slowly, spoke. "There is something . . . I want to talk to you about." Damon looked at him and again, then slowly began to pull himself up into a sitting position, dragging himself to the brick wall that he propped himself upon. He then made a motion with his hand that signalled for him to talk away. Stefan was surprised he was actually being co-operative, but Stefan wondered whether it had something to do with the fact Damon was starting to suffer being in this cellar with no-one to talk to. Neither Zach nor Stefan had come down to the cellar in days. "I know about Mae Fell."

Damon raised his eyebrow. "Your observation skills astound me, brother."

"That's not what I'm talking about," he lowly said, shaking his head. "I know you've been talking to her Damon." Damon remained silent. "Why?" Again, Damon remained silent, refusing to answer the question that has been playing on Stefan's mind all night. "She's not her, Damon."

Damon turned his head to give him an unfriendly smile. "Hypocritical, don't you think brother? You're the one that's dating the dead ringer of our ex."

Stefan's jaw clenched. "Leave Elena out of this."

Damon's eyebrows rose. "Trouble in paradise?"

Stefan ignored this statement and continued: "She's different."

"I know."

"She could never be Lydia."

"I _know_."

Stefan inhaled slowly. "She has her necklace." Damon turned his head to look at him. "She was wearing it today. It had vervain in it . . . Damon?" Stefan paused, at the look on his brother's face.

Damon's face suddenly became cold. "Don't you have homework to do or something?" Damon spat, sarcastic smile and glare in place.

"You're being defensive." Stefan retorted knowingly.

Damon rolled his eyes. "No, your presence is simply annoying me. Now run along and do your Math homework, so I can desiccate in peace."

"Keeping you out of Mae's life is for the best, Damon." Stefan muttered. "The last thing either of us wants is a repeat of Lydia."

**Short chapter today in comparison to the last chapter—apologies guys! & it's also not an episode chapter like I said it would be. I decided I would do Lost Girls & Haunted all in one chapter which will be the next chapter coming. This chapter is basically the lead up to the Vicki plotline, filling the time-gap, and also a little Homecoming aftermath. What did you guys think of the chapter? And also the Stefan/Damon sequence towards the end? It was a spur of moment decision. This Lydia plotline has been decided from the beginning and I did plan to just reveal it through conversation between Mae and Damon, but decided that it would probably be best to do it this way to make it more interesting. Lydia is an ancestor of Mae & you'll find out more about her throughout S1. She was closely tied to the Salvatores at some point in their past. No more clues, sorry. You'll just have to wait and see.**

**Thank you all for the reviews, follows & favourites btw. You guys are great! I only hope each chapter are living up to your expectations! I might even start answering some of your questions in each chapter updates :)**


End file.
